Sreenu Vaitla: No separate comedy track in Mister

Putting behind the disappointments in the last few years, Sreenu Vaitla is sounding confident ahead of the release of ‘Mister’ on April 14. In this interview, the star director gets candid. Read on..

‘Mister’ has been described as a travel film, among others. Tell us what makes it unique and how Varun Tej came on board.

It was my wish for a long time to make an emotionally rich travel movie. When Gopi Mohan narrated me this line in December 2015, I immediately liked it. We felt that Varun Tej would be more apt for this subject. The producers (Nallamalapu Bujji and Tagore Madhu) too were fine with our choice.

This is a travel film in true sense. We shot in superb locations across eleven cities of Spain. In India, Chikmagaluru, Ooty and beautiful locations in Kerala have been explored. All of this has gone into lending a new feel to ‘Mister’. Both Lavanya Tripathi (as Chandramukhi) and Hebbah Patel (as Meera) have given their best output. You will see a new Hebbah in ‘Mister’. I have tried to re-imagine her.

Audience watch your films more for comedy than anything else. The comedy tracks in your recent movies fell flat. What can we expect in ‘Mister’?

As you rightly said, audience expect special comedy from my films. And that’s there in ‘Mister’ but in different pattern. You will enjoy Varun Tej’s comic side. It’s not an easy job to get comic timing right. Overall, his performance is superb. Coming to what you can expect, there is no ‘bakra’ comedy in ‘Mister’. It’s all very fresh and situational. There is no separate comedy track. You will see story moving forward in the comedy scenes.

Listening to your answer, one feels the failure of ‘Aagadu’ and ‘Bruce Lee’ seems to have changed your thinking.

I have seen highs and lows over the years. I am inclined to be more focused after a failure. ‘Bruce Lee’ didn’t turn out the way I had envisioned. I don’t blame anybody for its failure as I am conscious of the fact that the audience must have rejected it because I failed to deliver goods. I have done ‘Mister’ with love towards my audience, not with any other consideration in mind. I am passionate about cinema and I update myself from time to time. You will understand it after you watch ‘Mister’.

Tell us about Mickey J Meyer’s music…

Mickey was chosen with the aim of showing difference. Although there was scepticism on the part of some people, my wavelength with his was in total sync. He worked on background score for 60 days in total!

What is your next project going to be?

For now, I am waiting for the release of ‘Mister’. I have two story lines in mind.