Director Surya Manoj Vangala’s latest release was the series Brinda, which is streaming on Sony LIV. It follows the story of a determined officer who emerges as the beacon of hope when all seems lost. Aimed at redefining the thriller genre and push the boundaries of storytelling in the Telugu industry, the series involves human sacrifices, mysterious killings and a cult.
A polarized environment
“Around 2016, the conversation around these topics became more serious due to a series of incidents, like the one where a baby would be thrown from the first floor by a god man so that people below could catch it, as the ritual was considered auspicious. At this time people started being branded on either side of the extreme right or left, leading to a polarized environment. These things were affecting me and I would wonder where do i stand. What should we be doing to keep ourselves sane in this chaotic world? All these questions led to the formation of the concept and the script,” Surya told us over a call, answering a questions regarding the origins of the story.
Surya Manoj Vangala in action |
Rewriting 500 pages, 50 times
.jpg)
.jpg)
It was quite a long process, with initially, his script coming to about 500 pages, which he re-wrote around 50 times, as his knowledge and understanding of the situation grew. Brinda marks actor Trisha Krishnan’s debut in the web space, but Surya maintains that he never has anyone in mind for casting. When they sent the script to Trisha, she liked it so much that she said okay directly without even listening to his narration.
“Trisha would be in a zen mode during the shoot, and would listen patiently as I would explain a particular monologue to her. While waiting for her shots, she would either be on her phone or reading a book, but the moment we were ready the shoot, she would deliver it on the dot, beautifully. There would not be any corrections,” Surya said about his experience of working with her.
A still from Brinda |
He would mail directors
Born in Narasipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, an interesting facet about the filmmaker is that he studied from BITS Pilani. Having learned Carnatic music from childhood, he was always drawn to the creative arts and was interested in the movies, like the rest of his family. When he made the cut for BITS, fortunately for him there wasn’t any minimum attendance system that had to be maintained. This time he spent watching almost four movies daily, starting from regional films and spilling over to the international ones. As the idea grew in his head, he discussed the possibility of pursuing it as a career with his family, who advised him to give it a try for 3 years, and if it doesn’t work, then get back to doing a traditional job. However, as luck would have it, things worked out for him. He wrote mails to several directors, and when Anish Yohan Kuruvilla replied to him, he got his first assistant director gig for the film Ko Antey Koti in 2012. Subsequently, he worked in the direction departments of renowned filmmakers like Sekhar.
Going forward, its not the thriller genre that he would be delving into immediately, but is working on the screenplay writer for the Telugu version of Bandish Bandits on Amazon Prime.
.jpg)
