25 May 2023
Hyderabad
In an exclusive interview with idlebrain.com, actor-turned-producer Mourya Siddavaram discusses his reason to don the producer’s hat, Men Too, why the title was apt for the film, why he is not nervous before the D-Day, his future plans, and does he think he has promoted his film enough to draw the people’s attention
After playing small roles in films like Kirrak Party, Ranarangam, Thellavarithe Guruvaram and a couple of web series, actor Mourya Siddavaram has decided to dabble in production with Friday release Men Too, directed by debutant Srikanth G Reddy. He admits production has been on his mind, wanting to do it at one point of his life. “I was hearing stories and was waiting for some good ones. Men Too is a novel concept which nobody has explored before. I felt I can’t make a film like it after making a couple of films as a producer. I could only attempt it as a first-time producer. To be frank, a production house will get attention if it associates with different concepts or off-beat ideas. I wanted that attention. At the same time, Men Too story was amazing. It’s not about women-bashing. You can see serious emotional characters in the film, especially the second half. The interval bang was another reason that prompted me to don the producer’s hat,” he tells idlebrain.com.
He goes on, “The director Srikanth G Reddy is an IT professional and I believe those who come from IT are sensible. Some of my cousins are from the same field. Srikanth tried to get the story green-lighted by many producers but he couldn’t. When he narrated the story to me, I could understand his sensibilities within 30 minutes. That day itself, I told him that I will be producing the film. It’s not a loud film. These days the films should be calm, cool and chill. This movie caresses you like a gentle breeze when you visit Manali and sit atop a hill.”
Giving a peek into the film’s characters, he mentions that it will see comedian Harsha Chemudu in a never before character. “We’ve seen him play a wide variety of comic and quirky roles but this role is something he hitherto essayed. After watching him, the audience will feel, ‘Is it Harsha who played this role?’ We succeeded in presenting him in a completely new light. Naresh Agastya’s role has got an emotional arc. He has a great mother who brought him up independently. There’s Brahmaji as well who plays a guy who guides men. As you can see, he uses a swear word in the trailer. If it was uttered by me or someone else, it wouldn’t have been odd. With him reeling, people understood the importance of the scene and that Brahmaji, who is an experienced artiste, might have thought about it a million times before uttering,” he explains, terming the film as “a clean and neat entertainer”. While he doesn’t want to divulge the subject matter, he says it has shaped out well. “The second half will be an emotional ride.”
With the film hours away from a big screen rollout, Mourya doesn’t have any butterflies-in-stomach feeling. “This is my first product and I should get used to marketing but so far I managed to reach the people. I’m very confident about the product. I’m not tense. I’m waiting for the world to see and laud my film,” he declares with an air of optimism.
As a producer, he wants to be associated with good content. “I don’t have a thought process like, ‘I want to make 100 films as a producer or I want to make a film with Prabhas’. I’ve given advances to two-three people but I will associate with a story if I feel it will connect to the people and do well in cinemas,” he shares his mantra.
The challenging task about the film, he says, “was to spend the money we spent and bring out the output we managed to do so”. He notes, “I will reveal about the film’s budget tomorrow.” Plus, he adds, “We are going with nominal ticket prices for the film. In a multiplex like Prasads, the price will be Rs 200 while in a single screen the price is Rs 110.”
Men Too, also featuring Kaushik Ghantasala, Riya Suman, Priyanka Sharma, Sudharshan, Ashritha and Karthik Adusumilli, was initially the working title of the film. “The point at which the title gets justified in the film, I liked it a lot. We thought of Maga Maharajulu as the title but I felt for our subject, Men Too was apt and decided to go ahead as we are not talking about anything wrong,” the producer avers.
The film also saw Mourya in a key supporting turn as Munna; in fact the trailer ends with his dialogue. “Naresh Agastya saw Thellavarithe Guruvaram and was keen on me in the character of Munna. Initially, we thought of Sudarshan and other actors but Naresh was adamant on me. I got to speak in Rayalaseema dialect for the part,” he points out.
He minces no words when he says the film is not a satire on #MeToo, a a social movement and awareness campaign against sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape culture, in which people publicized their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment at work place beginning 2017. “#MeToo is a great movement and we are not looking down upon it. Men have emotions and feelings. There are instances of many men who died by suicide, right? Which is why we named our film as Men Too. The film is not #MeToo vs Men Too. It’s completely about men. That’s it,” he asserts.
Moving forward, will it be one foot in production and another in acting for him? He replies, “I can’t decide the future. If I get good money from production, I will continue to make movies. If the acting experience turns out to be enjoyable, I will do acting. Whatever I choose to do, I will do it neatly.”
In the recent past, small films like Writer Padmabhushan and Balagam have been promoted aggressively in the run up to the release before they made a dent at the turnstiles. Does he think he had done enough on the promotional front? “If I spend Rs 100 crore or Rs 10 crore, the first day footfalls for a film like ours, no matter what, will be in the range of 30-40k. After reaching the people initially, hopefully good word-of-mouth will make it big. I don’t want to be associated with promotions in a specific manner. I believe content is the king and that is my strength over here,” he concludes.
-NAGARAJ GOUD
