Lakshmipathi Kantipudi
Sir, could you please tell us about yourself?
My native place is dulla, which is 25 kms from rajamundry. I did my graduation in bachelor of science from aditya degree college (2004-2007), Rajamundry . From the past 4 years I have been living in Hyderabad. My father Mr. Satyanarayana is a Farmer, my mother Mrs. Tulasi ratnam is a home maker, i have a elder brother, who is working as a Mechanical Engineer in Singapore.
Did your family encourage you in any way?
From my childhood I was bitten by the movie bug. I used to watch a lot of English movies and I always wanted to know the techniques of film making. Once, my family got to know about my passion towards cinema they thoroughly encouraged my aspirations.
Tell us about your journey towards Tollywood.
Soon after my B.Sc I have pursued a Multimedia course from Arena Institute, Hyderabad. During the multimedia course i tagged along with a few friends and we did few 3D short films which were appreciated by friends,family and acquaintances. During this time i have got in touch with few tollywood directors and we used to discuss, share and visualise the scenes and how they are going to be materialised on the big screen. The encouragement given by them was resounding and made me believe that i could survive in the cut throat business of movie industry.
Tell us about your inception into the movie industry?
As i have mentioned earlier, through my contacts i made few genuine friends and like minded people. Director Vamsi, (tentatively titled 20.11) was one of them, we met through a common contact and we soon realised we shared the same ideas on movies. At that point of time he was planning to make a movie and offered me a job to assist him on his upcoming project.
Tell us in what capacity did you work on the 20.11 project?
As it was a tightly scheduled and budgeted movie, I was involved in all the facets from the beginning which included asisting the director, script writing, scene division and editing.
What was the experience while shooting on the movie?
One of the earliest things I and the director realised was the digitalisation is the way to go forward, especially when the budget is a constraint. We shot on canon 5D camera and we were fascinated how we can tweak the equipment and play with it to get the right out put. We have spent 45 days on the script and we used to discuss the dialogues with our writers dharma and raksha. The final draft turned out just the way we visualised it to be.
What are the changes you would like to see in tollywood? What have you realised or understood after making a movie from your earlier perception as a pure movie goer?
I hope to see a realistic element being incorporated keeping in mind commercial values of a movie. I also would like to direct or see a movie based upon our rich heritage and history in 3D format. Secondly, during my times in rajamundry i was more or less fascinated by screen presence of big stars and their active prowess. However, after coming into the movie industry i have realised the nitty-gritty or the finer details of film making which have given me immense knowledge and know-how. The soul of the movie is solely the script and the actors or other technicians just follow suit.
Tell us about your director, vamsi krishna?
Director vamsi is just few years my senior in terms of age. He was very open to listening to our ideas and was very understanding about our thoughts. He never lost sight on the final output, even though he was taking our suggestions and inputs. He is very clear about how he wanted the script to be turned out and was also very clear how to get the right amount of emotions from his actors and was very clear on camera angles and shot divisions. He never treated us as an employee, rather he treated us as equals and more like a band of brothers.
Future plans or projects?
Well, havent thought about the future yet, since i am very engrossed in the post production work of 20.11. Once, the movie is out, i will re-work on the scripts which i have already developed.
