Yo Vizag • August’09
a r d n e g a N . .. g n i l l Hollywood ca
26
Q. How did you get into doing the movie,
'Where are you Sophia', a 96-minute psychological thriller by Vizag-born, US-based filmmaker Nagendra Karri will be released in September. The film made waves after its screening at the recently-concluded Cannes Film festival. Nagendra is currently in India scoring for new talent for his next flick, 'Mobster', a 150-crore budget film with an international and Indian star cast. Our young reporter, Karishma caught up with the 26-year old producer-cum-director-cum scriptwriter. Some excerpts from the interview…
'Where are you Sophia'? How did it feel? It's a very good feeling It's been a long long and interesting journey, an execution of about one and a half years from the concept to final product. Basically I researched and wrote the script in Jersey. The shoot was in New York and New Jersey. Part of the post production we did in India. Q. How did it feel when it was screened at the Cannes film festival? It was a good feeling, the last two times I was there, I was just amongst the audience, but this time I was the film maker. A 'been there, done that' kind of a thing. Also it gives you more flexibility in your next films in terms of who you need to cast and how big it can be and all that. Q. Did people take you seriously when you started? And how did your friends and family react? My
friends
and
family
were
initially
very
apprehensive. But now I think they have accepted the fact that I have made a career move and it turned out to be good. Nobody takes you seriously when you are going from a being a software engineer to a film maker, a drastic career change. Q. Tell us about mobster? There's been so much talk about it, like the casting of Johnny Depp Leornado DiCaprio, Eva Green and all that.. Yeah, the casting is finalized. We now have a talent hunt for a new actor and actress from India as supporting roles. Once that is done the entire cast will be announced on the 28th of August. The movie is about the life of FBI and Red Mafia, in the 1990's, when the USSR came crashing down and Russia basically exported a lot of its organized crime to US. Though, starting as a single film, the idea is to make a trilogy of it.