Koratala Siva: I like to entertain, the social message is a byproduct

Director Koratala Siva on casting Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan in contrasting characters in ‘Acharya’ and why he loves larger than life cinema

The casting coup, of bringing together Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi and his son Ram Charan, happened as the script of Acharya developed. Director Koratala Siva initially intended the film to have Chiranjeevi playing the central character. As he worked on the story, the scope for another strong male character emerged. Ram Charan, enthused with the story, agreed to come on board. 

Taking time out for this interview prior to the film’s release, Koratala Siva states that he was keen to see the father-son duo enact two pivotal characters that embark on different journeys to arrive at a similar destination: “Chiranjeevi garu’s character is aggressive while Charan’s character, Siddha, is calm on the surface and strong at heart. Siddha is a boy from a gurukul and Charan was apt to portray the serene demeanour. It is interesting to see how the two characters bond and their connection to Dharmasthali.”

Dharmasthali is a fictional temple town built for the film, spread over 20 acres near Kokapet on the outskirts of Hyderabad. Production designer Suresh Selvarajan, who hails from Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu, visited different temple towns to understand the milieu, before giving wings to his imagination. Then, Suresh and Koratala Siva developed a road map for Dharmasthali. 

Koratala Siva reveals that in the film, the temple dates back to 800 years ago: “People in a village built a temple (with the ammavaru or goddess as the deity) and over the years, a township developed around it. We wanted a true-to-reality look for the agraharam and other areas; nothing artificial. Cinematographer S Thirunavukkarasu (or Tirru, as he is referred to in film circles) made Dharmasthali appear surreal on screen.” 

The director and Tirru wanted a distinct colour palette with the black stone of the temple contrasted by vermillion reds: “We used a lot of kumkum red in the temple town and incidentally, it also accentuated the Naxal flag.”

The communist ideology and Naxalism, says the director, serves to highlight that Chiranjeevi’s character is aggressive and contrasts him with the gurukul-bred Siddha: “The story does not delve deep into Naxalism or communist ideologies.”

Koratala Siva explains that Chiranjeevi’s character is nicknamed ‘acharya’ since he metes out tough lessons to wrongdoers: “He is not a typical guru. But he teaches people lessons in a tough manner; hence they call him acharya.”