In this interview, Kumar Nagendra, the director of Tuntari, talks about how the film fell in place, why he chose a remake, what went wrong with Gundelo Godari and Joru, Nara Rohit's character in the film, and more.

This is your first ever interaction with the media. Tell us about your journey so far?

I worked as an assistant to Krishna Vamsi for five films starting from Khadgam to Rakhi. I had no other pre-occupation in life except films. I always wanted to become an amazing director. Lakshmi Manchu garu asked me if I had a good script. I narrated Gundelo Godari and she liked it. After GG, I did Joru, which too flopped. I did Joru because I like Priyadarshan's style of comedy and also because the Srinu Vaitla format of comedy is in demand.

I watched Maan Karate, the Tamil film, which collected Rs. 55 cr. I happened to talk to Rowdy Fellow's director Krishna Chaitanya and approached Nara Rohit garu later. Hehad already watched Maan Karate and said that he liked it. That's how Tuntari happened.

What is the subject of Tuntari?

Tuntari starts like a fantasy flick, like say, Final Destination. What happens when we know things in advance? What happens when we have the newspaper of a future date? We tend to cash in on the information that we have. That's what five techies do in the film. One of them is played by Vennela Kishore.

It will be thrilling to watch whether what they believe will happen will really happen. They bet that the hero will win a boxing competition with Kabir Dulhan Singh. They find a newspaper conjured out of thin air by a sadhu. The hero doesn't know anything about that till the climax. It's a comedy actually.

Have you made any changes in remaking the original?

In the original, the love story is a bit weak, as AR Murugadoss himself told me. Sivakarthikeyan does mimicry in the original and that portion is replaced with rom-com element in Tuntari. The climax in Tamil is 25 mins long. I have abridged all that. My film is 2 hrs and 2 mins. Mana vallaku opika taggipoyindi.

What is Nara Rohit's character?

He plays a boxer. He is not a serious boxer, though. He is misunderstood by the techies as one. They invest on him. It is like that Charlie Chaplin film where the protagonist is clueless when he is thrown into the ring.

Having made a remake, what do you like more: making a straight film, or making a remake?

Making a straight film. There is no much kick in a remake. There is no much work either. I myself don't know how it will come out when I am doing an original. When it comes to a remake, everybody in the unit knows what the output is going to be like.

I opted for a remake for two reasons. Since Joru's result was not encouraging, and because I liked Maan Karate.

What went wrong with Gundelo Godari?

We can do miracles only when everything falls in place. While making GG, I believed only in myself. It's not like the casting was not good. It was perfect. But the audience couldn't connect to the emotions in the second half. Maybe, I made it in a hurry. I also felt that I should downplay illicit affairs. Curiously, the Telugu audience said GG is quite Tamil. On the other hand, the Tamil audience said GG is quite Telugu. Don't our people wear 'lungis' and 'nikkars'? I have seen people wear them in the Godavari districts. Because some characters wear 'nikkar' and do masonry, they called it some art film!

What went wrong with Joru?

I will be frank with you. We wanted to make it on a small budget. It had a huge cast, including expensive actors like Brahmanandam, Sayaji Shinde, Ajay, and the like. Every second is penny when you are making a film with such people. I had no courage to ask for a retake if something did not shape up as expected. The prospect of the costs escalating because of retakes frightened me. Moreover, the film was too confusing.

Why are you opening up only now?

Though I am not big enough to tell this, I would like to share what Christopher Nolan said in an interview. He said that if filmmakers expose themselves, the audience will watch his film with that mindset. When he made Inception, we focused on the story, etc because we don't know much about the director. People go with some preconceived notions to the films of Rajamouli, Vaitla, etc.

I realized only of late that this attitude of a Christopher Nolan doesn't work for us here. (Laughs).