I got along brilliantly with Sekhar. His kind of filmmaking is so honest. In this day, so much of emphasis is laid on technique, but Sekhar never lets it dominate the storytelling. His movies are not arty -- there is an inherent sense of humour, a quirky one not seen in cinema these days. He believes cinema is a form of entertainment. As he believes in visual poetry, every frame is like a postcard.
The locales -- Godavari and Paapikondalu -- have been tapped before, but never like this. The Godavari has never looked so beautiful. Like Mani Ratnam never goes abroad to shoot his songs, yet manages to shoot them so well, Sekhar too has captured the beauty of the landscape. After seeing it, the Department of Tourism should shake his hands.
I play a character called Sriram in the movie -- a reference to Rama. There is an undercurrent of the Ramayana. The hero is romantically idealistic. It is a role closest to my heart. I was just being myself -- I didn't feel I was acting. It is definitely a new dimension. I saw a new me. The film is a love story. My co-star Komalini and I got along very well.
I have great memories of the shooting. I remember two or three interesting episodes in particular. The night before Deepavali, we shot all night and burst crackers on the Godavari at 6 am. It felt wonderful. Then, for Sekhar's birthday, Komalini and I decided to give him a surprise. We normally got along very well, but suddenly pretended to have a fight. It was an intense fight where we even had Komalini doing a mock slap. We told the camera guy to film all this. Sekhar was shocked. Then, we wished him a Happy Birthday. In one of the scenes, I had to jump into the Godavari and since I am a good swimmer I thought I could handle the river. But, after a while I couldn't, because of the strong currents. So, I had to swallow my pride and retreat.