Thikka will be a Guy Ritchie kind of film: Suneel Reddy

The director on learning lessons from ‘Om’, ‘Thikka’ and tapping Sai Dharam Tej’s comic timing

After making his directorial debut with ‘Om’ three years ago, director Suneel Reddy is back with ‘Thikka’, starring Sai Dharam Tej. Although the director received praise for his handling of the Kalyanram-starrer, it failed to set the box-office coffers ringing. “I’ve learnt my lessons big time, that’s why I made ‘Thikka’ as a full-length entertainer. Lots of things went wrong with ‘Om’ but I don’t want to discuss them right now,” he admits in a conversation with Hans Talkies.

Suneel points out that it didn’t take much time for him to get a hero for his sophomore effort. “I’ve signed Sai Dharam Tej even before his ‘Pilla Nuvvu Leni Jeevitham’ and ‘Rey’ released but since he was committed to other films, I had to wait,” he confides. Turns out, he goes a long with the suave actor. “I’ve known him since a decade. We belong to the same circle of friends and often used to catch up for a coffee.”

Was Sai obligated to the film with him? Breaking into a laugh, he reveals, “There was no obligation from any end. I had a great script from a Chennai-based writer Dawood. We pitched it to Sai and he took a liking to it but asked me if I can wait since he was occupied with other films. I said yes and in the interim I’ve enhanced the screenplay. ‘Thikka’ would surprise Telugu audience. It would be a Guy Ritchie kind of film.”

Talking about how the film unfolds, Suneel explains, “It starts with a girl (Larissa Bonesi) dumping a guy (Sai Dharam). The guy has already sacrificed a lot for her and thinks that he has been cheated. He later gets into Devdas mode and does crazy stuff. After some time, he realises that she didn’t dump him and when he approaches her back, she parts with him for real this time around. How does he win her back is told in an entertaining way.

“The climax will be a major asset to the movie. Almost all the actors come under one roof for the finale and I’ve gone mad handling them (laughs). It’s been long since our audiences have witnessed a climax like ‘Money’ and ‘Anaganaga Oka Roju’ and ours will be on the similar lines. It will be 25 minutes of non-stop fun.”

Suneel promises that it will be a very hatke outing for Sai. “You have to see to believe what he has done with the way he went about comedy,” he declares. Commenting about the delay in shooting of the film, shot in Hyderabad and Malaysia in 100 days, he explains, “70 per cent of the film unfolds in the night, so it turned out to be difficult to get everything in order.

Also, the actor’s energy levels (during nights) will not be same as they are in the morning. But we were prepared for everything since the beginning.” The director is all praise for producer Rohin Reddy. “He has done the film for my sake. He is new to the industry but people like him should do more films. He was like, ‘‘Thikka’ is my first movie, so please don’t compromise on the production values’,” he states, signing off.

By Nagaraj Goud