Srikanth Vissa: A lot of good writers are turning into directors due to not getting proper remuneration or recognition!- #BehindTheCamera- Part 2

An accomplished book writer, Srikanth Vissa, has been writing back-to-back big Telugu films in Tollywood. Recently Srikanth Vissa scored a Pan-India hit with Allu Arjun’s ‘Pushpa; The Rise’ and had Ravi Teja’s ‘Khiladi’. He has over 7 films lined up next in Tollywood that include 3 pan-India films, 4 Tollywood films and a few more yet to announce films. ETimes Telugu has approached the most sought-after writer from Tollywood to have a special chit-chat over his success as a writer and experience of working on ‘Pushpa’. The talented writer has shared some interesting titbits about ‘Pushpa-2’ and his upcoming films with Ravi Teja, Kalyan Ram, Nikhil and a few others, Below are the excerpts from the candid chat with the director.
After you complete the script, how much of your idea generally gets translated into the visual on-screen? Is it 100% all the time? or how much of your idea gets translated?
It's never 100%, to be honest. for eg; a script like ‘Khiladi’ is somewhere between 50 – 60% that gets translated on to screen. A lot of changes undergo while making a film, though the dialogues remain the same the emotion doesn't get carried forward. It also depends on the reputation of the writer. If the script is written by a well-known/successful writer 90% of his write-up gets translated but if it is written by a new guy that percentage decreases. But it'll increase gradually based on one's success and trust factor, his wavelength, and understanding with the director.
I'm working on 3 films with Sudheer Varma because our wavelengths match, the same is the case with director Sukumar. With Sudheer Varma, it is 90% for me.

If you write a story, you’ll get the copyright claim for your idea, but if you do the script fairing part will you get the same copyright for your developments or your dialogues or any other creative betterment to the existing draft?
No, nothing like that, you are at the mercy, whims, and fancies of the director and producer for that. As a dialogue writer, you don’t have any such protection so far in the entertainment industry. But I had to tell you that, very rarely have I had any problem with my filmmakers so far, be it the director or producer of my films.
Most of our people have these ethics and have credited me properly for my work so far. Be it ‘Pushpa’ or director Sudheer Varma all of them have given me my space and credit for my work.
Did you ever feel that the director didn’t take my idea, therefore, the film will not work, therefore I should stop giving more ideas to the director and get it wasted? Instead, felt like directing it on your own? Did you ever have such experiences?
It happens often, that garam garam discussions happen often, it happened to me with Vamsi garu in the recent past when I was doing the ‘Tiger Nageswara Rao’ script. He threw the writing pad and went out with anger but then it is never personal, I have huge respect for him. In fact, people like that will make us push the boundaries and think beyond the box. It is only a few people who out of insecurity do decline your suggestions. otherwise, it is only for the betterment of the subject.
For example, if I present 10 ideas to Sukumar, he’ll reject 9/10, the rejection percentage is maximum with Sukumar garu.
BTW, how long does it take for a writer like you to complete any given task such as dialogues, scenes, or betterment of a script or a screenplay of any project?
I generally take time, if it is for a story I’ll complete it in no time, but when it comes to dialogue ill at least take 1 month or even more depending on the project. Because, dialogues have more roles to play in the film such as consistency, continuity, character arcs, etc. If you are writing for a star hero he’ll have specific body language.
Do you prioritize your work based on the star or production house? Does such a thing happen with you and did any star hero from TFI call you asking for good storylines?
I don’t prioritize my work that way, it depends on the requirement, such as the director needs at a certain point at a certain time we'll do it as per his requirement, and sometimes based on the rapport with the filmmaker we tend to focus on a certain project.
Coming to your second question, a lot of star heroes are in touch with me all the time. We are constantly in touch, we are a small family here, I would say Tollywood is a small world.
In the coming 5 years, what can we expect from you as the most happening writer in Tollywood?
Aww, right now I'm enjoying this space of being a film writer. I have several writing commitments now, this year I have four. I want to finish them off all and then I want to make a conscious decision about getting in the direction. I don’t want to take any calls right now.

How do you get the motivation to write every day? Do you watch more films or do you compete with your contemporary writer's work (or) what triggers you to keep up with your good work in the competitive creative industry?
There is nothing like competition here, you know Sai Madhav garu, everyone admires him now in the industry because he has his niche, he created his own space, I need something like that for my work too, I want to create my own space and there should be no comparison to anyone and they must say that
Srikanth Vissa is good only for these kinds of films or that, I should be considered and approached for any type of film with equal importance and of course, I do watch films regularly and read more books to get updated and draw motivation from.
Could you please recite any dialogue of you that went viral or got you more fame from your films?
I can name such ones from the current film itself, the IPL dialogue from ‘Khiladi’ and the one that comes in the ‘Khiladi’ trailer....got me good recognition.
Could you please name some of your all-time favourite books, from the fiction, which made you read again and again and books that inspired you in Telugu Literature?
Since I’m an English medium educated student, I cannot read very pure Telugu books. Though I can read Telugu, I may not understand the books of Vishwanath Sathyanarayana who won Jnanapith for his work that contains lots of words in pure Telugu that I don’t understand. Similarly, I cannot read or understand the classic literature of Pothana, Errana and poetry or works of such writers. But I can read their interpretation by some latest writers in Telugu or English such as Chaganti Koteswara Rao to understand what Pothana had to say in ‘Bhagavatam’.
Coming to the commercial Telugu literature, I would love to read Yandamoori Veerendranath's works, he is the best and benchmark for it. Probably, he could have easily become Sidney Sheldon if he had written in English or even greater than him (or) Jeffrey Archer in English. Since he is a Telugu person he had limited himself to us, and he didn’t go far. Similarly, Malladi Venkata Krishnamurthy's works I love a lot, I think these people are far ahead of anybody else.
Also, one more thing is...I don’t look into the language before picking any book to read. I like my genre books such as crime fiction, crime comedy and books like that, I pick based on several factors. Eg: I like Frederick Forsyth's books because he has written very few books, but does put in a lot of research before writing any book. He just wrote less than fifty in his entire career and his books are about high profile crimes instead of puppy crime or murder mysteries.
Now, I have turned into more of a Non-fiction such as Malcolm Gladwell’s works. He has written very few but all of them are masterpieces. I also admire the screenwriting of Bollywood filmmaker Raj Kumar Hirani and people like that.

Do you discuss your subjects, and ideas with your family members, if so, what would their most possible reaction be? How much have you grown as a writer over the years?
I discuss it most with my brother, as my wife is very less into this. I also discuss this with my sister. Not just now, right from the early days and beginning days of my writing career I used to share with them. I take their feedback whatever it is..! These days I'm discussing it with my co-writer Prashanth.
I have learned a lot over time. Such as the nuances and grammar of the film. I feel story writing is different, anybody can write it just like that. But the grammar of it is difficult such as what to come from and where is something we get to know by experience. Especially film stories have different grammar. The semantics of cinema is different altogether from that of other forms of creative writing.
When you speak so many things about film writing, how did you get the first chance as a writer without knowing all the above grammar and semantics?
My first script was a political thriller, I wrote this for big heroes in Tollywood while working with HP. I pitched it to the producer Konda Krishnam Raju garu who produced big films like ‘Sriramadasu’ with Nagarjuna and ‘Vijayendra Varma with Balakrishna. I also narrated the story to Tarak, Ajith and a few others. But the film didn’t materialize due to various reasons. Then I narrated it to Chaitanya Dhantuluri, my first film ‘Basanthi’ director. He kind of liked the storyline.
He immediately asked me to work for him for his film that was going on, so, I worked with him as a dialogue writer.
About 5 films are coming up next from you, how do you feel like now and What is ‘Pushpa-2’ going to be like?
It's 7. I have completed ‘Bhala Tandanana’ with Srivishnu, Chaitanya Dhantuluri is directing it. I did one story for Nikhil and Sudheer Varma’s film which is entirely shot in London. We also completed the shoot of ’18 Pages’ with Nikhil, I did dialogues for it.
I have in production right now Ravi Teja’s ‘Ravanasura’. In March we are starting ‘Devil’ with Kalyan Ram garu. In April we’ll start ‘Tiger Nageswar Rao’ with Ravi Teja garu again. Towards the end of April or early May, we’ll start ‘Pushpa: The Rule’ we don’t take much time for pre-production as it is already done. Still, I have a few more projects which is can’t reveal now until the makers announce them officially. Therefore the above 7 projects are up next in different stages of production.
‘Pushpa-2’ will be bigger and better and much large than what you have seen right now.
You seem to get excited speaking about new stories and have come up with several new storylines already, but if you see in the Telugu film industry several movies are getting remade from other language film industries. Telugu Megastar Chiranjeevis’ two to three films are nothing but remakes of Malayalam and Tamil movies also there are around 7-8 films from other industries, why is that so? Weren’t our producers and heroes happy with our writer's stories, If not so why are they going for remakes?
It's not due to the dearth of writers. But due to all good writers turning into directors in Tollywood. If I am a writer, and if I'm doing 7 films in one year at max and 3-4 films minimum a year and if I turn a director I may do only 1 film per year or sometimes even less than that. Therefore a lot of good writers are turning into directors in the TFI. Due to not getting proper remuneration or recognition.
If you see all the major directors today are once writers such as Trivikram Srinivas, Koratala Shiva, Anil Ravipudi, and Sukumar…they all have started their careers as writers. Therefore once a writer becomes a director the no. of films he works on will gradually decrease. Which is the major reason for the dearth of stories or story writers in the TFI. If you let the writers be writers by paying them enough we’ll not have this problem. The amount our directors pay for remake rights and what they pay to the writer is no match and until that changes in Tollywood, this problem continues to exist.

Don’t our producers know this? Why can’t they encourage good writers with proper pay instead of wasting money on existing storylines from other languages in the age of OTT?
Once producer Suresh Babu told me that. if someone comes up with a storyline that talks about Chanti's character who is innocent and a rich girl fall for him for nothing, I would in no way get impressed or such a subject. But if I got to see the same in the form of a film, my perception might change, as we'll have a minimum guarantee for such subjects and we'll be risk-free.
Since the film has already done well in the neighbouring state/language, we have a minimum guarantee for such a storyline. Which is why they go for remakes.
But don’t you think it is the wrong perception of the producer on how he sees an idea or judges a storyline? If that is the case every one should only remake movies then…!
There is nothing right or wrong here, it is a business EOD, if something worked somewhere we are confident enough to invest in such subjects and this phenomenon doesn’t happen only in Tollywood, it happens everywhere in every Industry from one language to another.
If it is wrong it won't happen in these many industries. Say for eg; if you take the ‘Bava Mardhalu’ story it may work for the Telugu audience but it may look odd and not even a manageable relationship in the north belt. Some projects will have local value, and some a universal appeal. However, these days all films in Tollywood are of Pan-India appeal.
Several of my upcoming movies are Pan-India films too such as ‘Ravanasura’, ‘Pushpa-2’, ‘And Devil’ all are Pan-India films. Now, we have crossed all the borders and boundaries before, therefore it doesn’t matter if it is a remake or a straight film.
Did any of your films get remade in other language industries or have you got a call or deal from them so far?
I was supposed to do a film with Puneet Rajkumar in the Kannada industry, but unfortunately, he passed away. To top it most movies of mine are now turning up into Pan-India movies, therefore the need to sell them to other language industries is less.
May we know, whom you admire as a dialogue writer in Tollywood? Also, if you write dialogues, which hero/director in Tollywood do you think does justice to your writing?
In films, it's Jandhyala garu, in contemporaries I like Sai Madhav Burra gari writing. For me, it is 100% Ravi Teja garu. I feel my writing is tailer made to his body language.
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