Director Sailesh Kolanu on ‘Saindhav’: I wanted Venky sir to emote through his eyes rather than rely on physical histrionics

Ahead of the release of the Telugu film Saindhav, writer and director Sailesh Kolanu holds forth on directing the 75th film of Venkatesh Daggubati. Saindhav stars Shraddha Srinath, child actor Ssara Palekar, Ruhani Sharma, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Arya and Andrea Jeremiah. The film releases on January 13 ahead of Sankranti festivities.

“I feel as though I have submitted my papers and am awaiting the results,” says director Sailesh Kolanu, settling down for this interview soon after doing a final check of his Telugu film Saindhav, releasing in theatres on January 13. Headlined by Venkatesh Daggubati and starring Shraddha Srinath, child actor Ssara Palekar, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Ruhani Sharma, Arya and Andrea Jeremiah, the action thriller and family drama is Sailesh’s biggest venture to date.

An optometrist-turned-writer-director, Sailesh debuted in Telugu cinema with HIT: The First Case (Homicide Intervention Team) and followed it up with HIT: The Second Case. He had intended to take a detour from the HIT universe and direct a romance drama with newcomers. However, things took a turn when Venkatesh, after watching HIT 2, called to share his appreciation. “When I went to meet him, our ideologies and outlook towards life matched and we hit it off instantly. I was surprised when he said he is open to working with a two-film-old director like me,” Sailesh recalls. 

Sailesh had written the story of Saindhav during the lockdown, inspired by a boy who had knocked on his door to request funding for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy. To his shock, Sailesh learnt that the medicine costs ₹17 crore! 

“When Venky sir said he is open to collaborating, I went through my repository of stories and thought Saindhav would be ideal. Incidentally, it turned out to be his 75th film. I grew up watching Venky sir’s films and I was barely a few months old when his debut film Kaliyuga Pandavulu was released in 1986. Life has always given me things when I least expected. And it has been humbling to direct him in an emotional action thriller,” says Sailesh.

Sailesh says Saindhav turned out to be a bigger film than his previous ventures, as the script demanded it. “The story involves ammunition, a drug cartel and the people involved are well placed in society. The protagonist wages a war against them to save his daughter, who is diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy.” 

The film unfolds in a fictional city named Chandraprastha. “We needed a port city with a harbour. In the Telugu states, that would mean Visakhapatnam. We all know Vizag as a laidback and peaceful town. In HIT 2, I showed how the police officers were chilled out and of the opinion that nothing sinister happens in the city. It didn’t feel appropriate to have a story about a drug cartel in Vizag. I did not want a Mumbai setting for a Telugu family story either. So we chose a fictional name for the city.” Venkatesh’s character name, SaiKo (abbreviated from Saindhav Koneru) is a spinoff of Sailesh’s nickname.

An actor like Venkatesh who has been in cinema for 37 years may tend to draw from his earlier experiences to portray his character. Sailesh’s brief to him was simple: “I wanted him to emote through his eyes rather than relying on physical histrionics. He plays a doting father who goes through an emotional shift when his child’s life is in danger. He communicates the tension through his eyes. It is tricky when a parent knows there is a chance of saving the child, at the cost of ₹17 crore instead of no medicine. He will go to any lengths to earn that amount.”