It is not everyday that two software consultants quit their well-paying jobs in America to take a plunge in Bollywood but Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK did just that.
The directors say in the beginning, they had a hard time convincing people that they could make films.
Raj and DK started their journey with "Flavors" in 2003 but they call it "a part-time film" because they were still working in the US.
With plenty of ideas in the mind and "enough money to survive" in the industry for a while, they approached producers with a script that became the hit crime-comedy "99".
In an interview with PTI, Raj says, "It was hard because we didn't know anybody. We have people now sending us messages, asking us how to make a film, whom to approach and this is exactly what we were going through 10 years ago."
"You don't know where to begin, you know nobody in the industry. I could run into the hottest producer in town and I wouldn't know who he is," Krishna adds.
"99" released in 2009 but it was not an easy idea to sell.
"It wasn't a typical script with emotions of a father and mother. It was a strange story which looked funny, on top of it, we didn't speak Hindi, hadn't made a film before and people were like 'What! How do we trust these guys?'" Raj says.
Krishna believes the problem is also that they do not speak the film-set lingo prevalent here, which they spoofed in their film "Happy Ending".
"We are not saying some of the words they are used to hearing, not using the same lingo. Some actors tell us, once the shot is done you guys have to say 'superb shot, mind blowing, kamaal hai!' All we say is, good job, let's do the next scene."
Raj and DK bonded in an engineering college in Andhra Pradesh before moving to the US. It was their experience in the States, combined with the humour which they call "very current" that their latest "A Gentleman" was born.
"This was originally conceived as a film set in the US. We used to live there and could see how a typical NRI goes to work, same routine everyday. We have done Mumbai stories - guys selling books at traffic signal in 'Shor' - but this was our other life which we wanted to show," Raj says.
Starring Sidharth Malhotra and Jacqueline Fernandez, the action-comedy, shot in Miami and Mumbai, looks the most commercial film of the duo yet, but they insist it has been shot on a budget of a "romantic comedy."
But is there a temptation to be more gimmicky when you have popular stars and bigger budget, and Krishna says you have to fight that temptation.
"You've to be conscious about it, it isn't easy. When you have good-looking stars and fantastic locations, the idea is to pick up the strong points. Don't overdo it, just because you can."
Krishna believes the scale might appear big, but they have gone back to some of their favourite motifs - of a city running out of space - touched upon in "A Shor in the City" and quirky goons, like in "99".
"The action here is grounded. We take a grand shot of a car flying out of a high rise - very 'Fast & Furious' - and it gets stuck in the middle of a building because in Mumbai, there is no space to fly!"
"A Gentleman" is set to release on August 25.
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