Ravanasura will be a never-before-seen experience: Srikanth Vissa

Screenwriter Srikanth Vissa introduces himself as a huge admirer of literature, right from his childhood, during our conversation about his upcoming film Ravanasura. Talking from the sets of his upcoming film, over a phone call, he states that it was his love for reading and writing that gave him the push to publish his first novel Prathyarthi at an age of 18 and soon followed up with a second novel titled Sharasandhaanam. He soon realised his calling in screenwriting. "I needed a platform that allows my work to reach a larger group of people and I choose the film industry.” After working with director Chaitanya Dantuluri in Basanti (2014), a romantic thriller, Srikanth quit his IT job IT in Bangalore and moved to Hyderabad to pursue a career in screenwriting full time.

Team Ravanasura has hardly revealed anything about the story, even the promotional posters keep the audience wondering. How does Srikanth feel about this as the film's writer? “It all boils down to the genre of the film. Makers introduce the audience to the premise and the characters of the film well ahead if it is a drama. But Ravanasura being a thriller, with a rather unique concept protecting the element of surprise is of paramount importance. We want the audience to come to the theatres as a clean slate.” Continuing to elaborate on how the air of mystery around the film lent itself to the promotional material, Srikanth says, “We ensured that the teaser is cut in a way that will raise questions in people’s minds and encourage them to come up with their own theories.”

The mythological origins of the film’s title, along with the tagline ‘Heroes don’t exist’, however, reveal the nature of the titular character a bit. Srikanth says, “Ravanasura is a full-fledged negative character. He is not a Pushpa Raj (Pushpa) or Rocky (KGF). He is not a grey character, he is black instead. There are a few, very few positive shades though, for Ravanasura, much like his namesake. In certain interpretations of the Ramayana, we do see Ravana in a positive light. He is depicted as a great scholar, great warrior, Shiva devotee and the creator of Veena. At the same time, he is negative in a lot of ways. These attributes apply to our Ravanasura as well.”

Srikanth believes dialogue writing is the entry point for writers in cinema, with most directors penning their own screenplay. “A lot of things are bound to change when you arrive on the set with your script. It is the dialogue writer's job to ensure that the right changes are incorporated.” Srikanth, who has worked on Pushpa: The Rise and now Pushpa: The Rule, along with the upcoming films Devil and Tiger Nageshwara Rao, goes on to emphasise the importance of mastering dialects as a dialogue writer. "I know the Coastal Andhra dialect as I hail from that region. I have lived in Hyderabad for a while now, so it has also been easy for me to pick up the Telangana dialect. Mastering the Rayalaseema accent for Pushpa was a challenge.” Srikanth feels happy about the fact that people still recognize films through their dialogues. "The line ‘Thaggedhe Le’ is synonymous with Pushpa. Dialogues are an important medium that carries the story from the script to the audience. Dialogues are more than just punchlines.”

Srikanth ends the interview by assuring that Ravanasura is a film for both the fans of Ravi Teja and the general audience. “It has all the elements one expects out of an entertainer, particularly a Ravi Teja brand. His fans will thoroughly enjoy the film. Apart from that, the common viewers will also have a lot of fun, as I believe this film is a never-before-seen experience in Telugu cinema.”