21 May 2023
Hyderabad

Major director Sashi Kiran Tikka is set to don a new hat– that of a presenter. With his brother Chandramohan Tikka and one Srinivas serving as producers, Sashi will be associating with a new production house called Aurum Arts and their maiden project is in place. It will be front-lined by Kajal Aggarwal, while first-timer Akhil, who is from a film school and has directed a lot of music videos, will be directing it. Sashi tells idlebrain.com, “I’m contributing to the screenplay as well. Akhil is quite a talented lad. Aurum Arts is a step towards encouraging new talent and people who are with me. My brother Chandramohan will be looking after it. I will be associated more as a presenter and at the same time my role will change depending on who’s coming in (to the project) and the nature of the project.”

The project with Kajal was initially a small one but it “became a solid one” as the writing team developed it. “It’s a police procedural which has some action and thrilling elements. It centres on a lady cop who has an IPS rank. We were on the lookout for someone who has that aura. As we were thinking of names, we thought of Kajal. We were in a quandary whether she will join us or not as she is still doing films with stars like Kamal Haasan and Nandamuri Balakrishna. But we thought, ‘Let us try once’. We took her time and Akhil narrated the story. I was there as well answering her queries after the narration. She later said, ‘You know what? I want to do this. Let me know when you want me to come’,” Sashi exults, adding that quite a bit of research went into the script. “We met a lot of cops, particularly women cops so that the perspective is clearer. Kajal is prepping for her part as it’s a new character for her. The film will be in a realistic space but the action and the drama will have a bit of sugarcoating.”

The pre-production is in full-swing and Sashi is looking to take the project in front of the cameras this June or July, with an intention to wrap it up by the year-end. “It will be shot completely in and around Hyderabad. Sricharan Pakala is on board to compose the music, while Mohit, Akhil’s friend, will be the director of cinematography. Kodati Pavan Kalyan, who edited films like Major, Colour Photo and Writer Padmabhushan, will be the editor,” he notes.

As far as his next directorial is concerned, Sashi informs us that he is working on a couple of scripts and he will lock ‘one’ after two-three months.

-NAGARAJ GOUD