It's all about a ghost! Tollywood debutant director talks about his film

This Friday, a small film O Stree Repu Ra directed by Ashok Reddy will hit the screens. Made in a budget of below Rs 1 crore, the film is being released after Ashok struggled for a few weeks.

“I was planning a short film, but Madhura Sridhar and Thammareddy encouraged me to come out with a feature film,” says Ashok. Hailing from a small village of Ambapuram of Guntur District, Ashok was into movies since childhood, but his poor family could not support his dreams.

“My parents are farmers and no one in our family completed graduation. My father wanted me to study well and complete my degree. I completed my Intermediate at Gurazala and for degree, joined Pragathi College in Hyderabad,” says Ashok.

After graduation, he applied for a loan to go to Australia, for further studies. “With that financial assistance, I completed my MBA in Australia and got job in a firm in Bengaluru. But my film dreams were still alive,” says Ashok.

For two years, he travelled to Hyderabad every weekend to meet film personalities and also made three short films. “Seeing my short films, Madhura Sridhar and Thammareddy Bharadwaj encouraged me a lot,” he recalls.

The story of his debut movie came from his village. “People in our village used to write ‘O Stree Repu Ra’ (Hey woman, please come tomorrow) on walls and doors to drive away ghosts. This practice is not seen these days, but it was common in the 80s,” he says, adding that he developed the subject and made a short film and the rest is history!

His classmate Pravin funded the feature film, which was completed in Rs 80 lakh. Actress Deeksha Panth plays the ghost. The toughest part was getting a theatre. “It is very difficult to get theatres for such a small film. I ran around and met many people, finally, the movie would be released in nearly 70 to 80 screens,” he says.