Paradha, an upcoming social drama, brings together the trio of Anupama Parameswaran, Darshana Rajendran, and Sangeetha Krish. Directed by Praveen Kandregula in his sophomore outing, who gained attention with his debut film, Cinema Bandi (2021), the film explores female camaraderie in a Himalayan travel setting amidst a high-stakes fictional folklore. While a release date is yet to be announced, the cast and crew have shared insights into the making of the film, its themes, and their experiences at the film’s teaser launch on Wednesday.
Praveen Kandregula, also a co-writer of the script, emphasised the fictional nature of the story. “The story is completely fictional. We created a village and its surrounding. It’s not based on any place. But the film will make us question our belief systems and practices,” he said. He added that Paradha is not a conventional women-centric film but an engaging story with no intention of delivering lectures. “There’s a big surprise for audiences with Darshana in Paradha. I can’t reveal much, but you’ll enjoy the story of the film,” he says.
Darshana Rajendran, who has been part of notable films such as Hridayam and Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey, describes her experience working on Paradha. She says she has been exploring scripts from the Telugu industry and was drawn to this project for its unique appeal. “When Praveen got this story to me, I felt this would be pathbreaking. I loved it so much that I have dubbed for my character in Telugu. I don’t know driving, I don’t know Telugu, but I put all that effort into this film. It was a total party for me acting with Anupama and Sangeetha. You’ll see it on screens,” she shares.
Darshana also highlights the importance of telling stories centred on women. “There are many fun women stories, and they have to be told. I feel stories like these are meant to be said.”
Anupama Parameswaran, who plays a key role in the film, calls Paradha, ‘The best project of my 10-year-long career.’ She further said, “Unlike a regular story narration, this one went on for four hours, but even after that, I had the same energy and excitement. I felt that this was very rare for a story. I saw a particular goodness in the script. It’s the kind of script one can’t reject.”
Anupama also urges audiences to move away from gendered perspectives in cinema. “Instead of seeing things as ‘women’ and ‘men,’ it’s better we see this as a human thing. Cinema is for all. The characters go through a big journey and this is a proper travel film meets folklore,” she explains.
Sangeetha Krish spoke about the challenges during production. Initially planned as a sync sound film, the decision was later changed due to language barriers. “In the beginning, Vijay gaaru told us that this will be a sync sound film. Because we don’t know Telugu fluently, and we have Malayalam actors, I somehow convinced the producers to go for dubbing,” she says and adds, ‘I have done 90 odd films but I learnt a lot from Anupama and Darshana.”
The script of Paradha is credited to Praveen Kandregula, Poojitha Sreekanti, and Prahaas Boppudi, with Krishna Prathuyusha serving as the script doctor. The film is bankrolled by Vijay Donkada, Sreenivasulu PV, and Sridhar Makkuva under the Ananda Media banner, this marks the debut film for the banner. Gopi Sundar has composed the music, Mridul Sujit Sen handled the cinematography, and Dharmendra Kakarla edited the film.
