8 lakh YouTube hits for 'The Viva'

A short film on the viva exam by the Down to Earth team from Vizag has won many hearts in the country. The movie is going viral on networking sites "Making money is our last priority. Our desire is to win hearts. We receive hundreds of phone calls every day and that's so refreshing. People tell us that our short films are stress busters and that keeps us going," Samuel Tatikonda It looks like a film bug had bitten the three-week old Down to Earth (D2E) team. D2E team members are on 'Cloud Nine' with about eight lakh hits on the YouTube in just six days for their short film 'The Viva'. The short film is about the viva exam - an oral test conducted after the practical exam. The movie focuses on the casual approach of the students towards exam. The short film has proven beyond doubt that the public craze for clean and decent short films is on the rise. "You don't have to be 'vulgar' to get a huge fan following or instant recognition", says Harsha Chemudu, who passed out from Chaitanya Engineering College and lead actor in D2E team. We want to make clean short films, which sends strong message to the society and at the same time upholding quality and ethical values, he adds The best part of short film is that Harsha who acts as an invigilator for viva test is a failed student, which is revealed at the end of the film when the actual invigilator comes to conduct the viva test. Director of 'The Viva', Sambarish Kandregula says ,"Making money is our last priority. Our desire is to win hearts. We receive hundreds of phone calls every day and that's so refreshing. People tell us that our short films are stress busters and that keeps us going," he adds More than the hits they got, the team believes in getting connected to people. The short film 'The Viva' was uploaded on YouTube on July 11 at 8.30 pm and the hits started swelling by an hour. "My father was against taking up acting but after watching 'The Viva', the response we are received in form of hits, my father too started following the hits on the YouTube. He calls up from office to tell the increase in number of hits every now and then", says Harsha, whose father is a bank manager. The D2E team was into making short films for the last three years. The Omkar spoof and a few other films went online but nothing like 'The Viva' brought them success. After this short film, Harsha was offered roles to act in a few debutant directors' films. "I am keen to act if my debut director Sambarish can direct a film", says Harsha. The other two in the D2E team Sampath Kandregula, a final year BTech student from the Gitam University and Shanmukh Jaswanth Kandregula, a student of BBM in Gitam University, Vizag, are excited to see their short film making it into the hearts of lakhs of people. "We want to stay together till the end. Our desire is to see that every one of us reach success ladder. It is a team effort and we are going to be together," say the duo D2E plans to foray into films with a cautious approach. We don't mind accepting any offers which come our way but "we just don't want to jump into the fray without doing our homework", says Sambarish, a passed from Gitam University, Vizag. Only time will say how far this young team will go to, but before that, any hasty decisions can have effect on this budding team with a basket full of innovative ideas.