Debutant director Sathya Prabhas Pinisetty says his forthcoming Tamil-Telugu thriller "Yagavarayinum Naa Kaaka", based on a true incident, is a taut commercial thriller with a twist.
"Although the story is based on a real incident, some element of fiction was added to it to make it commercial and give it a twist," Sathya told IANS.
The film's story revolves around four friends and the repercussion of an incident on their lives. True stories aren't easy to recreate for celluloid, and the director agrees.
"Try to be as honest as possible to the incident. Having said that, you can't exactly replicate it because you need to choose what you want to narrate before the incident and what after it," he said.
"A film is usually about putting together a few events that audiences can relate to and lose themselves as they watch. They shouldn't think they're watching a film. They should feel it.
This script that I worked on, gave me all the ingredients and I just had to present it in an interesting manner," he added.
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Quizzed about the inspiration behind the film, Sathya said: "It's about an incident that happened to my friends, and it changed their perspective about life completely. I wanted to make the film in such a way that the people involved in the incident and audiences could relate to it. If it can change someone's life, I thought it's a good story to be made and told," Pinisetty said.
He also said that it's important to retain the soul of the incident while adapting it to the screen.
"There's always a heart and soul to an incident and it is what motivates you. It's very important to not let that go when you're making a film based on it," he said.
The film features Sathya's brother Aadhi Pinisetty and Nikki Galrani in the lead and is produced by his father Raviraja Pinisetty.
Bollywood actor Mithun Chakraborty plays an important role in the film. When Sathya approached the veteran with the offer, he gave him only 15 minutes for narration.
"As I started narrating the incident, he slowly got involved and I could see that he was getting curious. By the time I finished my narration, it was half an hour but he wasn't convinced and wanted to know more about the story. We discussed for two hours and he finally said that he will do the film," he said.
Shot in places such as Mumbai and Pondicherry, the film is titled "Malupu" in Telugu, and will release in cinemas on Friday.