Baby, starring Anand Devarkonda, Vaishnavi Chaitanya and Viraj Ashwin, has made unforeseen collections at the box office, making around 33.5 Cr. in its first week. The film’s director, Sai Rajesh, known for movies like Hrudaya Kaleyam , Kobbari Matta and Color photo etc, recently sat down for an interview and revealed quite a bit about the film and its shocking reception.
When asked which of the three characters was the main perspective of the plot, the director revealed that he didn’t want to show the film from any single perspective. He said that it was an active choice to show all the characters as flawed and gray. He said “I don’t want to take the men’s side, I don’t want to take the woman’s side.”
He went on to elaborate that usually in Telugu cinema a hero is either good or bad and the same goes for a heroine and, as most people are, use to these characterizations the characters have become hard to place in such clear role of ‘good’ or ‘bad.’
The host then proceeded to remark that though the characters were all written to be flawed some men have had extremely horrid reactions to the film’s female character. In light of a video of a man hitting the film’s heroine on the movie’s poster with his footwear and several audiences hating on her in the reviews, the host went on to ask how Rajesh felt about the fact that despite him writing the script with no bias, the audiences had misunderstood and taken a hatred towards the heroine.
The director responded in a genuine and heart-felt way, recalling his experience watching the premiere of the film, “I was watching the preview in Prasads actually, these 2/3 days are unforgettable for me, it has taught me a lot actually.”
He continued explaining that when he was writing and directing the film he intended for Anand’s character to be irritating and of “cheap” behavior in the interval and because he yelled at the female character it provoked her to make bad decisions later on in the film. Rajesh then stated that he was astonished, seeing people clap and cheer for Anand’s character as he abuses the heroine while keeping pin drop silent during Vaishnavi standing up for herself.
” I was unable to digest it,” he revealed that it was the complete opposite of what he envisioned and intended. He concluded that the fans’ cheers for Anand’s portion of the scene was shocking and brought him a great deal of sadness.
He concluded saying that despite the commercial success of the film, both him and the film’s female lead, Vaishnavi Chaithanya were extremely upset with the films film’s perception and are the only 2 people not enjoying the film’s success. The director said he even feared for the actress and how audiences would perceive her further.
It is truly amazing to see a director being so open and honest about the short comings of his film.
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