Direction Is My Only Focus Next:Vamsi

Ace writer Vakkantham Vamsi has a reason to smile, at last! After his previous two writing efforts – ‘Ashok’ and ‘Oosaravelli’ – with NTR failed to reap benefits, he has finally hit the bull’s-eye with last Friday release ‘Temper’. Admittedly he is over the moon. “As soon as I got to know about the first reports from Kuwait I got emotional, shedding a few tears.

I can now proclaim that I’ve delivered a hit with NTR,” he states, adding, “Puri garu’s subject was good but NTR kept it aside to pick my script. So there was an added pressure of living up to their standards. Maybe that’s the reason the success is more enjoyable.”

He continues, “Before the release, I was deprived of sleep for a week as I was with Puri garu monitoring the post production activities. Also, since the film is one which didn’t follow the regular pattern, I was anxious as to how audiences would react and gladly, they’ve received it very well.” ‘Temper’, Vamsi says, was conceived with Daya’s (played by NTR) character in mind. “I was writing this character – a man who feels responsible for the horrendous murder of a young girl.

Around the same time, atrocities against women turned out to be the talking point of the nation; so I decided to weave a plot around it. Like many, even I was shaken by the Nirbhaya incident.” For Vamsi, ‘Temper’ is a divergent script as his earlier works have mostly centred on entertainment. “I just went with the flow as I started writing ‘Temper’. I was not worried about sprinkling it with entertainment portions.

It was during post-production that some people expressed apprehensions that it seemed ‘low on entertainment’ but I was confident,” he recalls. “Daya’s confrontation sequences with Prakash Raj early in the second half are entertaining.

As we have become accustomed to a certain kind of offering, something new feels like lack of entertainment, I guess.” How did NTR react when he first heard the script? “He was stunned. Being a family man, he connected to the story straightaway. It took him a while to discuss it after the narration.” Like him, NTR is also on cloud nine, he shares.

“He has been waiting for a success like this. More than anything else, he’s enjoying the fact that people have embraced his performance.” Vamsi and NTR go a long way and share a very close bond.

“We are very friendly and share everything, including family matters. We meet often. He is someone who loves being surrounded by people,” he says. “Though our earlier efforts didn’t yield the desired results, he always believed that I was a good writer.”

With ‘Temper’ doing well, the writer is keen to don the director’s hat soon. He was to direct NTR last year itself. “The film is on course and the script was wrapped up long ago. I need to speak to him after he comes out of ‘Temper’ success (laughs). Depending on what he says, we will proceed with the project.” Isn’t the wait killing him? “It did some time ago but since I got busy with ‘Temper’ and ‘Kick 2’, I wasn’t bothered much. But next, direction is my only focus,” he signs off.