Zombies and the city city
Bollywood’s first zombie film has a link to the state. Producer-director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. explain horror, B’wood, Saif and yes, Kareena
Doomsday or not, zombies have always been big crowd pullers in cinema halls. Now with Bollywood’s first ever zombie film starring Saif Ali Khan set for a May release, Andhra Pradesh plays a huge role as the director and producer, Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, are from Tirupati.
Zombie films have always had a cult following and since most of them are made by amateurs and independent film makers, they have an element of comedy as well. The engineers-turned-filmmaker duo of Raj and DK, who released the trailers of their film Go Goa Gone on Monday, have always been ‘genre-benders’. “We are not big fans of horror, but we just wanted to see if we could make people laugh more than just shocking or scaring them,” shares DK.
The duo first actively stepped into filmmaking in 2004 with the well-received USbased movie, Flavors. But this was still the transition period between programming and film-making and the movie was a ‘part-time’ project.
It was only in 2009 that their arrival in Mumbai made a big noise with the film 99. “We were bored of programming and wanted out. We shuttled between India and the US with the intentions of making a Telugu and a Hindi film, so we camped in Mumbai. Being ‘outsiders’, we relied purely on the script and our sensibilities,” recalls DK. Apart from 99 being a crime comedy, it was a historical fiction story about events revolving around the cricketing controversies in the year 1999.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 Then followed the critically acclaimed Shor in the City. “The gritty humour and the portrayal of the non-glamorous side of Mumbai gave us the standing we needed in B’town,” they say.
On working with Saif Ali Khan, Raj shares, “Saif is very young at heart. He gets excited about everything. Sometimes, he needs taking care of too. That means stepping into the scene with him or even trying to keep him going when he is feeling a bit under the weather.”
But when Kareena Kapoor dropped in for a visit at the shoot, she was in for a shock. “When Kareena came over, we played a prank on her and it really scared her. Most of the crew members we work with are from countries like Australia and South Africa, so they really don’t know much about the ‘stars’ be it Kareena or Soha,” shares DK.
Also in the pipeline is their debut T-town production D for Dopidi starring Varun Sandesh and Sundeep Kishan. “It’s in the post production stage. We are only producing the film; it was written and directed by Siraj Kalla, one of our colleagues from Shor in the City,” says DK.
The duo is also gearing up to make their directorial debut in T’town. “We have locked in on a script. But I am not sure if we can name names as we are working with a ‘superstar’,” quips Raj.