“I know what the Russian soul is like”: director Sukumar - about his arrival in Moscow, physics in Indian cinema and the filming of the film “Pushpa”

Game variant: "We love to entertain the viewer"

— Did you expect that your latest film Pushpa will attract the attention of the audience not only in India but also in Russia and other countries?

Or was that your original goal?

— We had an idea to dub the film into other Indian languages ​​and release it in cinemas, but we did not count on such a strong response from the audience.

Immediately after its release, our film became a major hit not only in Telugu but also in other languages.

Practice shows that dubbing a film into other languages ​​does not bring much success, but in our case it turned out differently, and we are very happy about this.

I did not expect such a result at all.

— What inspired you to create the film?

- There is such a precious tree - red sandalwood.

It grows only in one place in India - in the state of Andhra Pradesh, where I come from.

This area is very small, but very valuable, you will not find such a tree anywhere else in the world.

Maybe in some parts of Africa, but not of this quality.

Red sandalwood is incredibly in demand in China and Japan, so there were those who began to smuggle this wood, the income from which is about 20 million rupees (more than 15 million rubles).

I was interested in this story, and I began to conduct my research on the problems for the series.

I began to deeply study the activities of smugglers, lumberjacks, and the police from the inside.

And in the process I realized that on this basis it is possible to shoot a full-length film.

How did you work with your actors on the set?

Did you give them the freedom to express themselves or rehearsed only according to the script?

- Both.

Allu Arjun is my very good friend.

We made several films with him.

We always discuss with him what and how best to do, how best to convey the character of the character.

He and I always have some ideas, we combine them, create a character and strictly adhere to it.

It is very important, in addition to the dialect that the hero speaks, to endow him with a specific body language or special expressions, gait, characteristic only for him.

By exchanging ideas, we reached the goal.

How much is this story

“This story is very close to the hearts of Indians because many of them live at a lower middle class level.

So when I created the hero, every Indian felt connected to him.

I think that's where the success of both the character and the film lies.

- The picture was shown as part of the MIFF in the summer.

Why didn't you come then?

— I was then very busy writing the script for the second part of the film.

- what kind of reaction

- I know what the Russian soul is like, because since childhood I have read Russian classics - Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gorky and others.

And now I'm interested in seeing the Russians and the Russian audience with my own eyes.

I am very worried about how they will perceive the film, how they will react to it.

Coming to Moscow for me is like a dream come true.

What compromises did you have to make during the filming of this film?

— It was a very difficult shooting: we were filming in the midst of a pandemic coronavirus infection.

Sometimes it was impossible to wear masks because of the heat.

We were all very afraid of getting infected, and in the process, every member of the team did get sick, because of which we had to stop filming.

After everyone recovered, we resumed filming, but again someone got sick, and again we had to give up work.

It was incredibly difficult.

Then COVID-19 receded, we took advantage of this and accelerated the post-production process.

So after three months of sleepless nights, we finished editing, voice acting and everything else and released the film in wide release.

out 

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We removed one scene.

Perhaps I will make her voice acting in Russian and put it on YouTube.

“Now there are talks about

 - Definitely.

There are already a few scripts that can be worked on, but I think other scripts need to be developed that could attract both Russian and Indian actors.

Of course, we will try different options.

— What is the potential of this collaboration, in your opinion?

- I can’t say what the potential is, how it will be perceived in Russia, but I can say with confidence that everyone in India will be delighted.

Indians love Russia.

— What films or topics could interest the audience of both countries?

- Most likely, these are such genres as action films, thrillers or thrillers combined with action films, or maybe stories where a Russian girl falls in love with an Indian guy or vice versa - such love stories.

- How similar are the audiences of Russia and India, according to your observations?

— In the 1970s and 1980s, Russians watched a lot of Indian films.

In the 1970s, they adored films with Raj Kapoor, but after the 1990s, interest in Indian cinema waned, the connection was lost.

I hope that our painting "Pushpa" will bring it back again and serve as a bridge between the two countries.

— You have a degree in physics, you also taught mathematics and physics.

How did you get into cinema?

- I wanted to become a director from the age of 14-15.

I wrote scripts, I made up stories, but I had to learn, it's very important in India.

After graduation, I was engaged in tutoring in the educational centers of the country, where I taught mathematics and physics.

But one day I finished everything, went to Hyderabad and started looking for a job as an assistant director.

And so this journey began.

— As a physicist and director, please tell us why the laws of physics are mostly violated in Indian films?

“This is such a funny part of Indian cinema, in which we break all the laws of logic out of the desire to entertain the viewer.

All the heroes of Indian cinema are superheroes without superpowers, who can handle everything with their bare hands.

Maybe it amuses the Indian audience, we are used to it.

The audience is pleased to see how on the screen the hero is able to knock down ten people with one blow.

They like it because this is what they would like to be capable of in real life: in India they (the audience. -

) are often deceived, harassed, so they would like to repel offenders, like heroes in a movie.

When a character does this on screen, they cheer and applaud.

Despite the fact that we try to follow some laws of physics, even in Pushpa they are violated.

What films have influenced you as a director?

- Of the Indian ones, this is the Tamil director Mani Ratnam, the Telugu Kashinadhuri Vishwanath, and also Bapu.

From foreign filmmakers - Akira Kurosawa, Andrei Tarkovsky (I love Tarkovsky very much!), Martin Scorsese and many others.

— Have you watched modern Russian projects?

- I haven’t watched modern ones, but I really love Andrey Zvyagintsev’s film “The Return”.

I also love Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood.

- How do you like Moscow?

“This is my first trip and I really like it.

I have already been to Red Square, as well as to the observation deck (Moscow City. - 

) and in Victory Park.