Naga Chaitanya: Yuddham Sharanam is an action thriller with a realistic touch

2017 has been a great year, so far, for Naga Chaitanya. After he got engaged to Samantha back in January, Naga Chaitanya scored a huge hit with Ra Randoi Veduka Choodham, and now his upcoming film Yuddham Sharanam is a dream come true considering that it has been directed by his best friend Krishna Marimuthu. The two have been friends since class IV and at the pre-release event of the film, Naga Chaitanya quipped that both of them fell in love with the same girl in school. “I won that yuddham (war) in school when both of us fell in love with the same girl, but I’m confident that Krishna will win the war on September 8,” Naga Chaitanya said, referring to the film’s release date. [caption id=“attachment_4014473” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  The poster of Yuddham Sharanam.[/caption] Admittedly, both of them shared a great sense of passion for movies when they were young, and like Naga Chaitanya, Krishna too idolised Mani Ratnam, Christopher Nolan, and Gautham Menon. By the time they got into college, the two friends knew that they had to make films at some point in their lives. Ask him why it took so long for them to collaborate, Chaitanya says, “Ever since I became an actor, I have been dreaming about working with my best friend. I share a great rapport with him and we understand each other really well. Having said that, I never pushed him to make a film soon after I became an actor. Everything happened quite organically. I waited for him to beat out few scripts which even the producers would like and find commercially viable. And thankfully, we found Yuddham Sharanam. It is a content-driven film and I’m confident that people will like it.” The script of Yuddham Sharanam was originally written by R David Nathan, who had previously written Nani starrer Gentleman, and initially, Suresh Babu was supposed to produce it. In fact, it was Suresh Babu who chose Krishna to direct the film; however, Rana Daggubati’s Nene Raju Nene Mantri, also produced by Suresh Babu, went on floors around the same time. Since he wanted to focus on one film at a time, apparently, Suresh Babu himself suggested Krishna to go ahead with the film and pitch it to another producer. The project eventually landed on Sai Korrapati’s table. In the film, Naga Chaitanya plays a youngster, who opts out of his regular job to make long-distance drones, and the crux of the story is about he takes on a dreaded gangster, played by Srikanth. “The film is based on the idea that there is a hero in all of us and when a crisis occurs, it’s a question of to what extent he’s willing to fight back. We wanted to keep the character very real. He isn’t going to have access to weapons and things like that, and to be honest, he isn’t capable of resorting to too much violence either. The drone is a character on its own. There’s an action sequences which revolves around the drones. I don’t think anyone has done this before. It’s going to be exciting,” he says. Naga Chaitanya’s co-star Lavanya Tripathi is equally excited about the film and she’s all praise for the film’s director Krishna. “When he first narrated the script to me I thought I had too many layers and I kept wondering how he’s going to handle everything. But once I began shooting, I was bowled over by his conviction,” Lavanya admits. Since the whole film had a realistic touch, in terms of the characterisations and story, cinematographer Niketh Bommi too had a plan of his own. “Niketh likes to keep things real and capture what the human eye sees. He didn’t want to glamourise anyone, so we all ended up playing our roles without any make-up,” Naga Chaitanya says. In Lavanya’s case, this no-make up clause often ended up with hilarious incidents. “I don’t wear heavy make-up in general. So, on the first day, when I wore slight tinted moisturizer, Niketh spotted me and asked me to remove even that. Another time, my cheeks had turned red after I played cricket on the sets. And Niketh thought that I was wearing make-up (laughs). He liked my look in my debut film Andhala Rakshasi and wanted to portray me in a similar way in this film too,” she reveals. [caption id=“attachment_4014489” align=“alignnone” width=“759”]  Samantha Ruth and Naga Chaitanya will be married in Goa this year.[/caption] The whole team that worked on Yuddham Sharanam is pretty young and many of them are from Chennai. This, in turn, changed the way everyone interacted on the sets. “No one cared so much about egos and none of us got any preferential treatment. Everything was about whether a scene is working or not. I loved this style of filmmaking,” Naga Chaitanya says, adding, “The success of Premam and Ra Randoi Veduka Choodham gave me the confidence to try something new. I’m looking at Yuddham Sharanam as an investment for my future where Krishna and I could collaborate on interesting films every 2-3 years. I really want the audience to look forward to our collaboration. That is the bigger picture.” It’s been a great year for content-driven films, and the success of recent films like Ninnu Kori, Fidaa and Arjun Reddy is proof enough. And there’s a general perception both within and outside the film industry that this is the best time to be right in the middle of all the action. “Our films have changed and audiences have been very appreciative of the efforts too. I’m really happy to see that films like Arjun Reddy are being made. It’s a great time to be making films,” Chaitanya avers. Post Yuddham Sharanam’s release, Naga Chaitanya will begin shooting for Chandoo Mondeti’s action entertainer Savyasachi. And then, all eyes are on his wedding with Samantha on October 6. The duo is all set to tie the knot at a private ceremony in Goa. “It’s been going pretty easy so far. I’m not getting stressed out about it since it’s going to be a small gathering in Goa (smiles). Both of us are busy with our ongoing projects, so we have decided to take a break from work towards the end of the year in December,” Naga Chaitanya signs off.