Director Bhaskhar Maurya: ‘Muthayya’ was born out of my fear

As the Telugu indie film ‘Muthayya’ gears up to stream on ETV Win, director Bhaskhar Maurya talks about it being fuelled by his journey

“I believed that my film would find its audience even if it took time,” says Bhaskhar Maurya, who has written and directed the Telugu indie film Muthayya. The film, which will stream on ETV Win from May 1, narrates the story of a 70-year-old man from rural Telangana with a long-cherished dream of seeing himself as an actor on the large screen. Call it serendipity, but the rather painstaking wait of this film, which began its journey in 2022 to reach its audience resonates with the film’s story and tagline, ‘it is never too late to dream big’.

Muthayya, headlined by Sudhakar Reddy of Balagam fame, was filmed in and around Wanaparthy in Telangana. Produced by Hylife Entertainments and Fictionary Entertainment, the film was shot at a stretch in 15 days, starring several locals in supporting parts.

Soon after its completion in early 2022, Muthayya premiered at the UK Asian Film Festival in London. It won the best feature film in Indian languages at the Kolkata International Film Festival. Bhaskhar bagged the award for best debut director at the Meta Film Fest, Dubai. The makers also won the best feature film jury award at the Indic Film Utsav.

The seed for Muthayya was sown when Bhaskhar, who had chased filmmaking dreams in Hyderabad, returned home to Wanaparthy. “I noticed people making reels and short films using their mobile phones and uploading them on YouTube and social media. They were not trained in filmmaking, but that did not dampen their enthusiasm.”

Bhaskhar learnt about a few natives who nurtured dreams of a career in cinema but never made it, consumed by responsibilities at home. The thought that Bhaskhar could also end up like one of them, burying his directorial dreams, gnawed at him. He channeled that fear into writing a story of realising one’s dreams, age no bar. “Muthayya stemmed from the fear that I might end up growing old, without becoming a director. I wanted to make an entertaining film, not arthouse cinema.”

Bhaskhar wrote the screenplay, since he did not have resources to pay anyone else. Once done with the first draft, he narrated the story to friends and used the feedback to finetune the screenplay. Hailing from a family of teachers, Bhaskhar pursued a diploma course in acting and direction at the Roshan Taneja School of Acting in Hyderabad. “I learnt the basics,” he says, adding, “I could not afford the fee at other larger film schools.”

Armed with the diploma, in 2012-13, he tried to make inroads into Telugu cinema as an assistant director, in vain. Returning to Wanaparthy, he was amused by the emerging short film culture.