Even as Tollywood continues to churn out out-of-the-box plots, director Teja Marini, a protégé of RGV and Vijayendra Prasad, is coming up with Johar, another Telugu film that clearly belongs in the above category. The film, we are told, is a social drama that deals with contemporary issues. “The film has a parallel narration, in which the story showcases how constructing a statue will affect the lives of five people — a prostitute’s daughter who wanted to become a doctor; an eight-year-old orphan suffering from a kidney problem; a teenager working in a circus, who aspires to be an athlete; an aspiring entrepreneur; and a 70-year-old veteran looking to raise funds for an NGO,” explains Teja.
The director goes on to admit that it was real-life incidents across various spheres in life that prompted him to pen the fictional drama. “In the coming days, we will be spending around `14,000 crore for constructing statues. Instead, there are several burning issues that can be addressed with those funds, and that’s what I’ve tried to convey through my film. It’s not preachy but I am only trying to highlight how lives can get affected as a result,” explains Teja.
Presently, Teja is getting the final mixing of all the eight songs in the film done at Abbey Road Studios, the world-famous studio in London. “It was our music composer Priyadarshan Balasubramanian’s idea. We believe quality music will elevate the film’s visual content, and as such, we felt that an international studio will enhance the musical experience. Abbey Road Studios has earlier worked with Hollywood projects such as the Avengers and Harry Porters franchises,” reveals Teja, adding that with the studio, he expects his film’s song quality to go to the next level in that every instrument used in the song can be heard and experienced.
