Tapping virgin territories in film-making

The three-minute promotional video from Telangana Tourism, ‘Make Movies and Celebrate’ managed to grab eyeballs of people-who-matter; here is what the director of the project, Dulam Satyanarayana has to say

The Telangana Tourism’s ‘Make Movies and Celebrate’ promo film has gone viral. The video draws us into a world of breath-taking and spectacular locales across the State, which the film claims, are unexplored.

Visually aesthetic, the three-minute video captures the greens of Jodeghat, rustic landscapes of Gandhari Qilla and Pandavula caves, cavernous Kerameri Ghat and the list goes on. While the video managed to grab eyeballs of people-who-matter, here is what the director of the project, Dulam Satyanarayana has to say.

“It took me nearly one-and-half years to find the locales, which were predominantly showcased in the video. The idea was to tap the unexplored. My team and I worked round the clock and the results are nothing short of amazing,” shares the director.

The young documentary film maker from Mancherial in Adilabad district, who made name with films like ‘Moushuni’, ‘The Dreadful Fate’, ‘I am Satyabhama’ and others, got the idea to make a promo film on unexplored locales, while he was represented Telangana Tourism at the Goa Film Festival in 2014.

“It occurred to me why don’t we make a promo film of that kind to attract film makers to the new State. While, I was mulling on the idea, I had the opportunity to closely work with Telangana Tourism department to make documentaries on Bonalu, Bathukamma and others. While shooting for the same, my team and I came across some of the beautiful and unexplored locales and we decided to go ahead with the project,” he recalls.

In a fortunate encounter, Satyanarayana managed to meet the Minister for Information Technology K Tarakarama Rao, while the latter was inaugurating the Komaram Bheem Project. The Minister, who saw a few shots of what finally made to the promo film, was thrilled and came on board with the idea. “It was no looking back from there,” Satyanarayana smiles.

“We travelled length and breadth of the State to make the promo film. Tourism in Telangana, apart from a few places in and around Hyderabad, is vastly unexplored and we were keen to tap that vast potential.

We included Somasila project in Mahbubnagar, Saptha Gundala, Manikguda caves and others in Adilabad, centuries-old Ramalayam at Dichpally in Nizamabad and we even managed to add less-known place like Pandavula Caves in the portfolio of Warangal,” he reveals.

The lanky film maker commended his team, but reserved special praise for his cinematographer Sunayana Singh and drone pilot Vinay Mahankali. “There were many aerial and birds-eye-view shots in the film and they were shot fabulously by Sunayana and Vinay,” he says.

The film maker, who learnt his craft by watching international cinema and later, won a scholarship and trained in the US, believes that there is a lot of scope for development of film making in the State. “The Government has done the ground work, but there is more to do.

Infrastructure in the locales needs a major boost. But, if the film makers start shooting at these places, it will be a huge boost for the local market. With the government keen to offer special packages for film makers, I am sure that film makers will make a beeline,” he opines.