Hailing from a middle-class family in Bheemavaram, 23-year-old Siddhartha Shankar (Sidhu) had absolutely no experience in direction. His mother is a housewife and his father a mechanic, while his elder brother works at HCL in Pune. And though he had never worked as an assistant director nor made any short films, he managed to catch the eye of director Ram Gopal Varma.
Unlike most filmmakers, all through childhood, Sidhu was disinterested in movies. “It all began when I started editing some wedding videos to earn a living,” says Sidhu. “While I was doing my graduation in engineering, I switched to editing short films shot by my friends,” he reveals.
However, his parents did not encourage him to enter the film industry, as they wanted Sidhu to join a software company. As luck would have it, “RGV wanted to do a web series and he called my friend, and that’s how I came onboard the team as an editor,” he says.
“One day, RGV called me and asked me to direct the film Bhairava Geetha,” he says. “I was shocked and scared initially because I hadn’t even directed a short film until then. So, he asked me to do a test shoot, which he liked and then gave me this chance,” recalls Sidhu.
Under the tutelage of RGV, Sidhu learnt how to prepare a scene board and shoot. “He never came to the sets, but I used to inform him of film’s progress twice a week,” says Sidhu. The film was shot at Kadapa, Pulivendula, Badami and many other places. And was made in Kannada and Telugu simultaneously.
“It’s a different experience for me as director. People who are older than me called me ‘sir’, which I find very odd. But everyone respects the person in the director’s chair, so they all respected me,” says Sidhu.
“On the first day, I was a bit confused and couldn’t manage to take a single shot,” he admits. Soft-spoken and boyish, Sidhu now commands a unit with ease.
Bhairava Geetha is a period drama about landlords and workers that takes place in the ’90s in Rayalaseema. “Though RGV provided the story, he never got involved in the shooting. Even the artistes and locations were selected by me and RGV,” he says. Most of the film was shot at real locations and has used the local people, with Sidhu taking charge of 500 people at times.
Sidhu has no great aspirations, and would just like to go with the flow. “I don’t have any plan of spending a lifetime in films or of making some award-winning film. I just want to earn something and buy a house for my mother,” says the humble director. He has, however, already signed his next film with producer Abhishek Nama of Abhishek Pictures.
