Shekhar's talent hunt

A role in Shekhar Kammula's movie is considered a sure shot ticket to stardom in Telugu cinema.His 'Happydays' that released with fresh faces three years ago made the actors in the film stars overnight.The director who then made 'Leader' which was a blockbuster is now on a fresh face hunt for his upcoming project 'Life is beautiful'.Shekhar has come up with hoardings, tied up with radio stations and is touring colleges in search of the 'faces' for his next movie, something he did for Happydays too.Rubbishing the claims that this is to create buzz for the movie, he says, this is an honest search for the six lead pair for the movie."My next movie needs young fresh faces.They needn't be one of those six pack boys and size zero girls who are usually wanted in films.Any outgoing, energetic youngster can log on to our web site http://www.amigoscreations.com/ and send in their pictures to me. If I feel they suit the charecters in my film, they will be in. I am not looking at this as a forum to create buzz for the movie. In our state which is still obsessed with engineering and medicine kind of careers, it is still difficult to get youngsters into showbizz and this is an honest attempt to search for such fresh faces" Shekhar claims.

With Shekhar Kammula being a brand himself, why not work with established stars in the industry?Is it easier to work with freshers than the known actors?"The script demands fresh faces with no other image.If I cast the same team of Happy days, it will be called its sequel.And the actors now have a certain image that doesn't suit the charecters and hence the fresh face.In 'Leader', I worked with seasoned actors like Suhasini, Kota Srinivasa Rao et al. They give us so many variations for a shot and we can chose what we want from it.At the same time, it is tough to get the freshers to be camera friendly and train them.Everything has its pros and cons.It is just that the script of Life is beautiful demands new faces and hence the search" he clarifies. The ace director whose filmogrpahy has all blockbuster hits and is now a mascot of urban Telugu cinema is not bothered about him being branded as a director who makes cinema for urban youngsters. He says the acceptance of urban cinema is increasing since there are mutliplexes coming up everywhere.

"It is not a concious effort to make cinema for certain audience. I just write the script and make movies. For me cinema is not business equation, it is my passion and a medium to tell a story.I don't do cinema for number games or for monetary satisifaction. When I made 'Anand' my audience were say 15 lakh people and then Happydays was watched by about 1 crore audience.I can clearly see the increase in the number of audience for my movies which means there is an increasing acceptance of urban cinema.Besides, the number of multiplexes are also on the rise.'Urban' stories are not concious deciscion at all. It just happens" Shekhar's movies are a genre Telugu cinema has never seen before. His films don't have murderous villains or cliched comedy tracks.They have no gravity defying fights or vulgur romance.Will we ever get to see a typical mass masala film from Shekhar?"I don't do movies which patronise heroes where the audience see the hero more than the charecter.I will certainly do action movies in the future with an established star" he assures.

With no flops in his career and all his movies being box office hits, expectations are huge on his films.Shekhar says he keeps the pressure factor at bay since he makes movies for the love of the medium than to be number one in the industry."Success doesn't get to my head since I know that audiences tastes keep changing and there is no guarentee for success of my films.So far my movies didn't fail.There is pressure on me but since I make cinema for passion and not for business, I don't let it affect me" the director concludes.