Hyderabad’s Pavan Atukuri helms series on alternate universe in Telugu

When done-to-death plots are commonplace on the big screen or OTTs, Hyderabad-based Pavan Atukuri has dared to think out of the box and come up with ‘Nuvvu Evaru?’, a web series based on the concept of an alternate universe. It is probably the first time this cryptic concept has been woven into a fictional story and made into Telugu series.

However, getting this series released was not a cakewalk for Pavan, a self-confessed die-hard fan of Christopher Nolan. Not the one to give up so easily, not only did he get it released on YouTube but also is open to the possibility of its Season 2.

In an exclusive chat with ‘Deccan Chronicle’ Pavan takes us behind the scenes of this sci-fi series and also doesn’t shy away from speaking his mind on other issues plaguing the entertainment industry today.

Congratulations for ‘Nuvvu Evaru?'’. Tell us about yourself and how you decided to co-write and direct this series.

I am a corporate drop-out turned filmmaker. I have written and directed over 800 corporate films for the creative agency I founded “Open Face Media”. Our work has won three international awards. I have also written a comic book. However, I always wanted to foray into cinema backed by solid storytelling. With the emergence of OTTs, web series became quite the rage, but soon the OTT market got saturated with a lot of repetitive content. I wanted to break into the scene with a fresh concept that no one had heard of before. I reached out to my buddy Deepak Karamungikar who lives in the US and is an avid writer. Many years back we collaborated on a few short films. We together wrote a slice-of-life 12-episode series during the pandemic based on a story written by me “Katyayani”. But in terms of scale, it was a big one, so we kept it on hold for the time being. Around the same time, Deepak came to me with this concept of alternate universes; what would happen if you met your doppelganger from another universe - how would it impact you emotionally was the prime idea, from which we built ‘Nuvvu Evaru?’ (“Who are you”)

Do you think it was a difficult theme to handle right in the first project?

I remembered a famous quote by Todd Skinner, “We cannot lower the mountain; therefore, we must elevate ourselves”. I told myself there’s no fun if there’s no challenge. I told the same to Deepak and he couldn’t agree more. The story has dual roles for every character, one in the home universe and one in an alternate universe, we see them interacting with each other. We built a bitcoin mining farm using VFX, we chose to shoot this series in the US. After the first cut, I saw there is a scope for a promotional song, we went for it which is otherwise unusual for web series. In a nutshell, I took Todd’s advice too seriously I guess. (Smiles)

It wasn’t easy conceiving those ideas, forget about implementing them. However, we had an idea about how to seamlessly stitch them together. Also, I had a great team on and off the sets which made this possible.

Any specific reason to shoot it entirely in the US and not in India? All the characters are Indians. How was the experience?

For people to travel between different universes, portals should open, for portals to open you need a lot of energy. The hero of our story in his basement sets up a bitcoin mining farm, which needs a lot of servers powered by a magnet that amplifies electricity. When this bitcoin mining farm experiment goes wrong, the tremendous energy from the servers helps open a portal to the alternate universe. In India we do not have a concept of basements, secondly, bitcoin mining is illegal in India. The concept does not work if it were set up in India. We’d have to change the story entirely.

While we were shooting in a National Park near Washington DC, our shooting was stopped by a forest ranger, we didn’t know we needed permission to shoot there. Thankfully we didn’t get arrested. J We rented a house to shoot major portions of the indoor shots, the couple living there tested Covid positive when we were just three days away from wrapping up, we had to move into one other house and complete the shoot.

What sort of research did you have to do to handle this not-so-common theme?

The research for the story and concept development was done by Deepak. We got on several calls and discussed how the screenplay should play out, and how it confuses people layered with comic elements yet intriguing. We are well-versed in sci-fi themes like time travel, multiverses, wormholes, and such. Deepak authored a book “The Alterant” around these, and he was thoroughly qualified to talk on this subject. As a director, I wanted to make sure that everything seems logical, and make it as simple as possible for anyone to understand.

The series is in Telugu while the end song is in Hindi. How come?

Our music director Avinash Baghel is from Chhattisgarh, I have worked with him in the past for my corporate films, short films, and documentaries. He is a solid talent. When we brainstormed on creating theme music for the hero from an alternate universe, he came up with a tune and wrote lyrics for it in Hindi. The onus was on me to write the Telugu lyrics for the same, however, I was busy coordinating with Colorist, Audiographer, VFX artists, etc. My editors Abhinav and Vinod added this song to the end credits. When I saw the final edit of Episode-1, I felt it created the mood as well as diversity. Everyone loved the idea.

Why did you prefer to release the series on YouTube and not some other streaming platforms?

We had taken the web series to every possible regional OTT platform. We got rejections everywhere for various reasons; new actors, the concept being too futuristic, and many other reasons I cannot share here. I did not want to keep the finished product on the shelf for too long hoping for an OTT release. I thought this concept should reach out to wider audiences, and YouTube is the way.

How has been the response so far?

Our primary goal was to bring something uncommon to the fore that people can relate to. The series is well appreciated for its storytelling, packaging each episode with twists and turns, and solid performances by the lead actors. We have received great feedback for bringing this unusual concept to life, that too on the small screen and especially in Telugu. The most common keywords have been “intriguing”, “interesting”, and “terrific concept”. As a director, I see this as a big success. We created a campaign around it asking people to share what they will do if they meet their version from an alternate universe, and the response was tremendous.

What’s your take on nepotism in the film world? Any first-hand experience?

We all know that nepotism exists in every industry, not just the film industry. A politician’s child can become a politician, a doctor’s child can become a doctor, etc. Why single out the film world? I am an eternal optimist, if you are talented and you have high integrity you can make anything happen for you. This reminds me of the famous quote “When you want something, the whole universe conspires in order for you to achieve it”. I guess in the future we will get support from the alternate universe as well.

Of late, there has been a huge noise around South vs North films. What's your take on this?

We are on the cusp of many changes that are happening in the film world, and I guess this is just the beginning. Pan-Indian films, cross-over of actors from their home turf into new terrains, dubbed versions doing good business, acceptance of new genres, acceptance of regional cinema nationwide, and many more. While expectations were not met from some of the big Hindi films in 2022, Hindi OTT has emerged big time with solid production values and international collaborations. I guess many such factors may have affected Hindi cinema, but I am sure it will bounce back very soon. ‘Pathaan’ is a case in point.

Against that backdrop ‘Pathaan’ how do you view the pulse of the audience? Are they ready to accept path breaking stories or want to stick to run-of-the-mill content?

I strongly believe various elements come together to make a film work 1) for the audiences 2) for the producers 3) director & his/her team and 4) for the actors. Sometimes a story can be the hero, or the packaging of a wafer-thin storyline with Box Office stars into a spectacle. This verdict is given by the audience every time a film releases, and that depends on “which side of the bed they wake up from” (Laughs).

After the entire series is out, do you feel you would have done something differently? Plans for another season?

I believe I had given my 100% to the series within my capacity. I am one of the producers of this web series along with my college friends Pramode and Upendra; they had faith in me, hence put in some money for this web series. I only wish I had an established producer’s backing for this project with a bigger budget. But I can still say, yes, we have done something unique, something no one attempted to do before. We’re proud of the product we have created, the output we’ve brought on screen, and the outcome. We left a solid hook for Season 2 in the last episode of “Nuvvu Evaru?”. We intend to do Season 2 on a much larger scale. I hope a big production house or a savvy producer is reading this.