‘Pushpa’ writer Srikanth Vissa: ‘Pushpa-The Rule’ will be bigger and better than the first part – #BehindTheCamera – Times of India

Srikanth Vissa is one of the most happening writers in the Telugu film industry right now, who is impressing the audience with some back-to-back big Telugu film releases. Recently he scored a Pan-India hit with Allu Arjun’s ‘Pushpa: The Rise’ and had Ravi Teja’s ‘Khiladi’ running in the theatres now. Having over 7 films lined up next in Tollywood that include 3 pan-India films, 4 Tollywood films and a few more yet to announced films, the writer hailing from Kakinada got his first book published at the tender age of 18. Sounds impressive! Therefore, E-Times reached out to the writer to have a candid chit-chat over his success as a writer and experience of working on ‘Pushpa’. The talented writer shared some interesting titbits about ‘Pushpa-2’ and his upcoming films with Ravi Teja, Kalyan Ram, Nikhil and a few others, Below are the excerpts from the candid conversation…

An engineer who is a successful writer right now! How was the journey?

I was born & brought up in a small town called Kakinada, I have completed my Engineering there, I had a passion for writing right from my childhood. By 18, I have completed my first book and it got published. Then I travelled to Vijayawada to give my IIT Entrance Examination, there I got to know that Vijayawada is a Publishing hub for books through my cousin.

Then I had visited one publisher saying that I have written a book and I want it published. Though they were initially reluctant, I bared all the postal charges and sent them my written copy, Even after 8 months, the book didn’t get published as they used to say they get hundreds of such drafts every day therefore it takes a long time for them to read and finalize and I used to follow up them regularly and after a very long period I got a call from them saying they liked my work and they would love to publish it. But again, they were r

Since you are a born writer, who has been writing ever since you got to know this world, did you also get any formal training in terms of book writing & film writing?

Nothing as such, I don’t know if you believe it or not, I didn’t even read a single book before I started writing my first draft of my book. Then I came to know that if you have to be a good writer, you had to be a good reader first, however, I wrote a book without reading a single book. It’s an instinct and an urge to put my thoughts on paper, that is the only driving force for me to write. Now I have become a compulsive reader, I got addicted to it, which drives me to write. When I sent my first book for publishing I was just 18 years old and I sent it Top Telugu book publishing house called ‘Emesco book Publishers’. They not just published my first book, but also my second book.

Is there anyone from your family who was in the writing industry or Entertainment industry before? If not how come you got interested and developed writing skills at a younger age?

‘Door Door tak koi nahi hai’ (chuckles), not even in my extended family. I had this urge to write right from my childhood, I was not even 18, I started writing from a very young age.

What is that you used to write about and why writing?

I was interested in fictional writing, especially crime stories, thrillers. Even if you see today, most of the projects I’m working on are either crime fiction or similar content films including my recent ‘Pushpa’, ‘Khiladi’. The first book that I wrote is ‘Pratyardhi’ and it is not available right now, it was published way back in 2003 I believe. But my second book titled “Sharashandhanam” on archery is available in public outlets such as book fairs & bookstalls.

Did you write anything during the lockdown and how did you utilize your time being a writer?

I had ample time and work to enjoy, I enjoyed myself thoroughly, I have read lots of my favourite books, prepared a couple of scripts, Normally when everything was normal I used to visit the filmmakers for a story discussion then used to come back home and work on the above said changes. Therefore I didn’t use to get the time to read, which I have fulfilled during these pandemic days.

How are you enjoying the success of your film ‘Pushpa’ that has become a super hit across the country? What compliments did you get for your work from the Industry, outsiders, and did you get any calls from Bollywood?

I am enjoying my success with ‘Pushpa – 1’ and I got appreciation from almost every important person from the industry. But the best compliment I got was from the director himself, that is the best thing any writer could get. He was very happy with the writing, as several celebs from Bollywood called and congratulated him. So, we all are up for ‘Pushpa -2’ now, which will be bigger and better than the first part.

In Film Industry if you write a story for films you’ll be known as a writer, if you pen dialogues/lyrics you are called a writer, if you do screenplay or script doctoring again you’ll be known as a writer, Therefore what do you do among all the above?

Actually, my strength and competency are in story writing. But in the industry, the work is more for the dialogue writers than the story writers. Because directors generally come up with storylines, they want writers to help them & develop their ideas into scenes and dialogues. So, when I initially come to the industry I got more work as a dialogue writer. Director Sukumar already has an idea for ‘Pushpa’, he wanted someone to write lines for his brainchild ‘Pushpa Raj’, that’s where a dialogue writer comes in. But now most of the movie I have written is a story and script. I’m doing ‘Ravanasura’ starring Ravi Teja as a story writer, I’m doing ‘Devil’ with Kalyan Ram garu as a story writer. Then I’m doing one film with SreeVishnu and one film with Nikhil and Ravi Teja Garu all as story writers.

Are you associated and writing for ‘Stuartpuram Donga’ and ‘Tigernageswara Rao’ which deal with the same storyline, the life story of a notorious thief back in Andhra?

No, I’m not the story writer for ‘Stuartpuram Donga’ but the thing is initially when we thought of doing a story on notorious thief ‘Tiger Nageswara Rao’, we pitched the story to Bellamkonda Srinivas first but for some reason, the project didn’t materialize. Then we pitch the same story to Ravi Teja and he okayed it and we are doing a film with Ravi now. Even if Bellamkonda wants to do a film on TNR, the story has to be different. But the amount of information about TNR in the public domain is very little, unlike NTR, which has all the information of all times and all platforms. We have very very less information, in fact, scraps of information about the notorious thief. We just took some rumours and gossip about him and we dramatized a story about him and his life. Therefore if someone has to do a story about TNR it has to be different, as our story itself is fiction instead of reality. Bellamkonda’s film is altogether another film about the same personality and I’m not sure if they are going ahead with that project. Also, there is one correction, ‘DJ Tillu’ is not my film.

But, most of the films coming up in Tollywood have your name to them, so, how did you write so many movies in such a short time? Seems like you are the most needed writer in Tollywood right now?

It may seem like I have done so many movies in such a short span, but if you know the reality the groundwork for all the above happened much much back, but they either got postponed or delayed due to several reasons. Since these movies have been announced now, it looks like I have done all the movies at once. My first film got released in 2014, post that I didn’t have any release till 2017. In those three years, I had worked on several scripts which didn’t materialize then and the situation in the film industry was different then, I was a writer who used to talk about crime comedy, heist movies and there was no market for such movies then.

The Telugu film industry has evolved a lot in the last 5 years with the advent of OTT and other opportunities. All my old scripts started materializing. If you see, even the ‘Tigernageswara Rao’ script I started working on it way back in 2018, therefore it’s almost 4 years now.

Your Film ‘Khiladi’ got released now, and public reviews are in the public domain, what do you have to say about your film now?

I don’t want any kind of unnecessary comments/controversy around it now, it is having a decent run at the theatres. So…! I don’t think this is the right time to talk about it now.

When do you get into any film projects? Do you sit right from pitching the new storyline to the hero/producer or you were just roped in during the dialogue and screenplay stage? When will you enrol on any film project as a writer?

It changes with every film, If I prepare a story, based on my access to the film producers, heroes and directors, I approach the respective person. For eg; I pitched ‘MCA’ to Nani, long back before the film had actually okayed to make, for some reason the story didn’t get materialize. Then later someone went to him with a similar storyline & Nani felt that the storyline was similar to mine which I narrated to him much before, therefore he called me but by the time they roped me in the project, the script was almost done except for a few scenes. Then I wrote the leftover part and I was credited for the dialogues in the film and that’s how ‘MCA’ happened.

Go on…

But for Venkatesh and Naga Chaitanya starrer ‘Venky Mama’ writer Janardhan Maharshi pitched the story to producer Suresh Babu, though he liked the story he wanted someone to work on its scenes and dialogues, then I have made some changes to it, Suresh Babu liked it and then the director Bobby came into the project. He, in turn, made a few more changes to it and asked me to write the dialogues for the new draft and ‘Venkymama’ happened but for ‘Pushpha’ I was there right from the conception of the idea. All we thought about ‘Pushpa’ at first was we wanted to make a film on Sandalwood smuggling and its smugglers that’s it. And it was wonderful to travel to what it is today.

Did you ever face this issue, of your dialogue getting chopped off due to a lengthy idea or did the film time got increased due to your lines or scenes in the film, and did you ever have to confront the director or producer for the same?

It happens with every project. We do this homework and editing right from the scripting stage based on the length of the project and it doesn’t happen without the consent of the writer, it generally happens by mutual understanding and discussion between the writer and the director. See, EOD it’s a director’s prerogative to ask for anything for a film. Even if it is my story, it is him who is presenting it to the audience, therefore, he’ll make the final call and I respect that.

But if you see in filmmaking, once a script is done, it
is made into a bound script which will no further be touched instead break into
the shooting script, but if you keep editing it repeatedly event after
finalizing the script don’t you makers get confused with such repeated
omissions and extensions to the okayed idea?

This bound script thing is a big myth in the film industry (laughs), nobody follows that it is only in the public platforms they talk much about the bound script, in reality, a script undergoes several drafts at several stages of the shoot, right from the pre-production stage to dubbing, it can get improvised, omitted, changed and undergo any sort of change at any point. All these years in my experience for so many films, I have never seen one movie strictly sticking to the so-called bound script.

How do you work on a film project? Do you stick to the project whole through its making or do you just submit your work once in the beginning and revisit it towards the end of the making?

I don’t know about how others work, but as far as I’m concerned I sit all through the project right from its production stage, I go to the sets every day and am available for any change at any time and the development even at the last stage. Even if I’m not available ill send my associate to the shoot. We’ll have several impromptu discussions on the spot from different ideas from different people such as lead actors, supporting actors as well. But if those changes were made in the absence of the writer, the script might miss the consistency and flow of its content and characters. Therefore, we’ll stick to the project all the time.

Part II will be published soon…!