NeediNaadiOke Katha,­ the first Telugu Dogme 95 film

The Dogme 95 manifesto, a Danish film making technique proposed in 1995 is all news in Tollywood for the last few months. Credit goes to Nara Rohith, who came forward to support a revolutionary and new wave cine making technique in Telugu film industry and the writer and director VenuUdugula, who believed the Dogme 95 manifesto is the correct method to tell the story of his debut film.

Needi NaadiOke Katha, aka NNOK, is all set to release in the last week of September this year. But despite the details of cast and crew, the film has already won interest from film critics across Tollywood for the director choosing Dogme 95 method to shoot it. A number of Telugu movie buffs searched Google for the Dogme 95 Manifesto to know that it is the ‘Vows of Chastity’ proposed by Danish film makers Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg in 1995.

The word, Dogme or Dogma, means an authoritative principle, belief or statement of opinion. The Dogme 95 manifesto forbids the film maker to use sets, props, special lighting, color changing techniques, re-recording etc. The manifesto demands that there are no flashbacks in the story, the scenes in the film must not be superstitious and shot on handheld camera.

The Dogme 95 manifesto won accolades throughout the world as the solution to make good movies with low budgets. The movies like Festen, Idioterne, MifunesSidste Sang, The King is Alive, Lovers, Julien Donkey-Boy etc won appreciations from the critics and received special jury awards at Cannes and other movie festivals. But these 10 Dogme 95 rules are hard to follow.

The violations occurred from the very first movie, Festen, directed by Vinterberg and released in 1998. He violated two rules, using props and special lighting in the very first movie itself. In India, first Dogme 95 film was Karma Cartel, a Malayalam and English bilingual film released in 2015 and is produced and directed by Vinod Bharatan.

VenuUdugula confessed that he followed only 7 of the 10 rules of Dogme 95 for his debut and first Dogme 95 film in Telugu. The movie lover who struggled 12 years to make his film said, “The story of NeediNaadiOke Katha is not a fiction but resembles the life of every one of us. It’s the story of characters in ours or neighbors home.

The audience feels that they are looking into the neighbors’ house through the window comfortably sitting on a couch. I believe the story of the film decides in which architecture we should tell it. NNOK demanded it to be told in Dogme 95. To make it interesting for our audience, we followed 7 of the 10 rules in Dogme 95 manifesto.”

As Venu is a debut director, it needs courage to invest on him and his radical idea of following the Dogme 95 manifesto. But Nara Rohith believed in him. As a man with the taste of distinctive film making, Rohith allowed Venu to follow his mind. “I always had a doubt that who will come forward to break the stereotype of film making.

When I met Nara Rohit and narrating the story of NeediNaadiOke Katha to him, I saw a ray of hope. When I told him that I want to make the movie in Dogme 95 technique, he appreciated it and asked me to go ahead. He wanted to pay a tribute to the manifesto with our film. I sincerely thank Nara Rohit, Vishnu, Vijay and Prasanthi for backing this project through out.” added Venu.

The NeediNaadiOke Katha is being produced on the banner of Nara rohit, ARAN Media Works and is getting ready for release by the September end. Cast of the film include Sree Vishnu of ‘AppatloOkadundevadu’ fame and Satna Titus along with few new talent.