‘I’ve always loved writing strong women’

Raj Nidimoru describes the creative process of writing and making Maa Inti Bangaaram and the excitement of replicating the success of the strong female character in his Stree. Excerpts from an interview:

Q.Raj, normally it’s a woman who’s behind a man’s success; but here you are—the man behind a woman’s success!

I can’t take the credit for Sam’s success. She has been a consistent draw at the box office long before Maa Inti Bangaaram.

Q.You are no stranger to strong women characters making such a big impact – take Samantha’s roles in Family Man and Honey Bunny. How does this impact cinema?

I’ve always enjoyed creating these characters. I always created strong female characters in any movie, whether it was female-led or male-led. Female-led films doing so well, like Stree in Hindi, and now Maa Inti Bangaaram in Telugu, is really heartening and also exciting in the sense that you know you can make all kinds of incredible stories, without really worrying about who's headlining it — a guy or a girl. So, that was a big breakthrough.

Q.Interestingly, you have repeatedly made your women characters strong enough to take on the man — going against the norm of men being associated with action, as the physically stronger gender. What is the logic behind that?

I think I wanted to embody the fighting spirit in physical action. That spirit is there in a lot of women, in defending who they are and fighting for equality, fighting for their rights, their dignity, their place on earth. So, this is an interesting visual cinematic representation of that spirit.

Q.Did you expect it to be so successful when you were writing it? Did you find the elements you wove into the plot as interesting as the audience is finding it?

In this case, I did. From the start, there was this idea of a sari-clad daughter-in-law entering a traditional Telugu household, but with a twist on the familiar environment. It was such a strong, exciting idea. I knew it was a winner. I just hoped that I could write it well and make it well, that it shaped up well — you know, movies tend to go flat or the big idea gets flattened on screen. It was one of those ideas which could easily have gone south. There was a risk, and I wanted to make sure from the first page to the last edit that what it was trying to say didn’t get lost.

Q.Was it important for you that a woman directed this film? Or was that a happy coincidence?

A happy coincidence! I’m happy that it was a woman and Nandini Reddy and I kind of made the film together, so it was really more of a partnership.

I believe that a film happens majorly in the writing; and one piece happens during directing and another big piece during editing and music. I played with the music on the last three days before the output, to elevate the climax. When I was shooting the climax, I tried to come up with the action choreography on the spot. But I knew I would have to work on the editing. The music took it up a notch. I could see how it played in theatres and how much hooting and howling and clapping was going on with that whole surge of energy.

All the elements just come together to create a universe, a cinematic universe. It’s magic. You can’t really control it.