Siddhu Jonnalagadda
| Photo Credit: Adrin Sequeira/Special Arrangement
Two years in the past, earlier than the launch of the Telugu crime comedy DJ Tillu, actor-screenwriter Siddhu Jonnalagadda informed this reporter that he wished to be a star of a 100-crore movie in the subsequent three years. The assertion got here from a area of confidence. The 2022 Telugu comedy crime drama was a raging hit and its dialogues proceed to have recall worth. When we start this interview for Tillu Square, scheduled to be launched on March 29, Siddhu laughs heartily when reminded of his assertion.
The making of the sequel has been something however simple. “It is a mixed bag of emotions,” he says. “DJ Tillu was a fresh outing and we did not anticipate it would become so huge. We began the sequel with a bigger goal and it was my responsibility to take it forward.”
Siddhu says there have been days of excessive stress when he questioned his resolution to take up the sequel. “There were also times when an episode would turn out so well that the effort seemed worth it. At the end of the day, what matters is whether I worked with honesty and was not driven only by the motive of becoming a star. We all tried to tell a story in an entertaining manner.”
Street tradition and philosphy
The character of DJ Tillu got here from a mixture of Siddhu’s experiences and observations in the neighbourhoods of Warasiguda, Chilkalguda and Malkajgiri areas of Secunderabad, with beneficiant cinematic liberties. Siddhu describes the character as a reflection of road tradition and philosophy. “If you observe carefully, Tillu was philosophical beneath those layers of wacky fun. But I did not want to be poetic or artistic about those philosophical statements. I chose sarcasm as a medium to convey his thoughts.”
Siddhu discloses that there was no blueprint for a sequel. Plans have been chalked out solely after the viewers linked with the first movie. He and the manufacturing home Sithara Entertainment had wished to work on one other movie however determined to take up the sequel first because it had good enterprise potential. “We thought the risk would be higher but so would be the rewards. Only later did I realise that we jumped into a well without knowing its depth.”
Anupama Parameswaran and Siddhu Jonnalagadda in ‘Tillu Square’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Director Vimal Krishna of DJ Tillu, in the meantime, was busy with one other movie since the sequel was not deliberate. Siddhu and Mallik Ram have been to work on one other movie collectively and Siddhu prompt that Mallik steps in for the Tillu sequel. The writing, says Siddhu, was a collaborative course of with the involvement of Ravi Anthony, Mallik and others.
The writing took time. Siddhu wrote the first draft for six months solely to scrap it and begin afresh. “When I narrated the story to a few people, they did not think it could be a sequel to DJ Tillu. When I stepped back and analysed it, I realised they were right. I started all over again.”
Ask Siddhu what number of drafts they’d for the remaining screenplay and he remarks, “Recently when I told a friend that the film’s runtime is about two hours, he remarked that I had material for four films but made one. That’s how much we kept writing and filtering. We wrote 600 to 700 pages. I think I have aged more in the last two years than in the last decade. The writing took a lot of effort.”
The fixed highlight on the making of the movie made issues more durable. Siddhu factors out that a number of modifications have been made even throughout the making of DJ Tillu nevertheless it didn’t make headlines since not many knew about the movie. “I would like to think of all the attention as perks that come with making a sequel of a successful film. After a point, I decided not to give those speculations the merit of my attention.”
To focus higher on the writing course of, Siddhu says he needed to “regain consciousness of my hunger to write without being swayed by what was happening outside. We had to decide what aspects to retain from the original and what to change. We wanted the audience to have the familiarity of the first film and yet give them something new and more wacky.”
Constant state of chaos
Writing, rewriting and giving his inputs for modifying, he says, “was a constant state of chaos in my head.” There have been days he would observe a scene being filmed and think it had no place in the remaining edit. “Once, one of my co-stars noticed that I wasn’t going all out while performing and asked what was holding me back. I said maybe this scene may not be needed for the film. So sometimes, the filtering happened on sets.”
Tillu’s small world comprising his mother and father and mates will stay unchanged however he’ll face a new set of adventures with the arrival of a new character in the type of Lilly (Anupama Parameswaran). Anupama, says Siddhu, was the first alternative for the feminine lead. “During the initial discussions, a few other names were considered. Even before we made a formal announcement, some of those names got leaked and we could not help it.”
Siddhu is conscious that sequels are topic to comparisons and criticism and says, “We stuck to our gut instinct and tried to make a fun film and hope that the audience likes it. Irrespective of whether a film turns out to be a blockbuster on Friday or not, we have to move on to our next film on Monday.”
Siddhu will transfer on with an untitled movie he signed with director Nandini Reddy, Telusu Kada by costume designer-turned-director Neeraja Kona, Jack with Bommarillu Bhaskar, amongst others. “I wanted to ensure versatility and these will be completely different from the Tillu films. All my characters are vulnerable, have some flaws and insecurity that make them human.”