Kavya Kalyanram: I’m happy Ustaad is on a viewer’s watchlist alongside Bholaa Shankar, Jailer this week | Exclusive

The child artiste-turned-lead actress, law graduate holds forth on playing Meghana in Ustaad, the fruits of success and the significance of a good promotional campaign

Kavya Kalyanram

Kavya Kalyanram tasted immense success as a child artiste in films like Gangotri, Tagore, Balu, only to distance herself from the industry later and pursue a career in law. However, the allure of cinema caught up with her eventually and she wanted to give a shot at reviving her acting career - she was prepared for either of the results but didn’t want to regret not trying later.

Be it Masooda, Balagam or Ustaad, it was her initiative, persistence, talent that helped the projects materialise for her. Kavya had to start from ground zero all over again and she didn’t mind it. With two hits as a lead - Masooda and Balagam - Kavya has already been named a hit machine but she doesn’t want to jinx it.

Ahead of Ustaad’s release this Saturday, where she plays Meghana, cast alongside Sri Simha Koduri, Kavya catches up with OTTplay.com for a chat.

Butterflies in the stomach? Are you getting used to the pre-release nervousness?

There’s tension of course, I hope audiences like Ustaad as much as we did. The fact that we’re trying to make a mark in between two biggies like Jailer, Bholaa Shankar shows our confidence; it’s slightly worrisome too.

Looking at Ustaad beyond the protagonist’s journey

It is Surya’s journey from a teenager to a pilot. Every character in Ustaad gives a different direction to his life including the bike (after which the film is named), the mechanic, mother and my character Meghana. The biggest USP of Ustaad is that the hero is flawed; he has temperamental issues and he’s unstable. Meghana brings a lot of stability to his life, helping with his personality change too. He gets easily angry, is stubborn but how he overcomes his limitations to fulfil his dreams is the story that we’re trying to tell.

A deeper look into Meghana’s world

It is primarily Surya’s story but Meghana’s arc is equally well written. If you look at life from Meghana’s perspective, she’s an ambitious girl but lives in a simple, orthodox family in Telangana. She’s the daughter of a government employee, who wants Meghana to be an engineer and land a government job. She’s doing engineering for a degree, writes government entrances to please her dad, but her ambition is to do MBA, which also she successfully pursues.

What makes her special?

She’s a girl who’s trying to cater to everything along with her passion. I hope at least one woman in a theatre is inspired by Meghana. Women are always under pressure to please people - the father wants her to get a job, mom wants to get her married and her love interest expects something else. There’s a strong character arc for Meghana which establishes her personality and her strength. It’s her persona that brings about a change in Surya’s life too. To establish Surya well, it was important to have a good character arc for Meghana.

Being a Gautham Menon fan-girl and acting in the same feeling as him must be special..

I unfortunately couldn’t share screen space with Gautham Menon in Ustaad; only Sri Simha has scenes with him. He shot only for 3-4 days and I was sitting along with the direction department throughout the filming. His influence is integral to the film. Sri Simha and my roles in Ustaad are named after Surya S/O Krishnan’s lead characters - Surya and Meghana.

I don’t know if I and Simha were the first choice for our roles but I don’t think our director Phanideep considered any other names for the captain’s role. Gautham Menon’s films have had a great impact on Phani’s writing. Being a Gautham Menon fan myself, I could sense the inspiration when the script came to me and the director admitted it to me in a later conversation.

The captain’s role may appear small but the story’s narration starts and ends with him. He puts a few key questions to the protagonist and you feel his presence throughout the story. His character is close to Gautham Menon’s real-life - he’s witty, sarcastic in a fun way. Simha and I believe that Gautham Menon is sarcastic, but he’s a fun, chill person. He was a natural in his part.

Looking back at the trailer launch in Vijayawada

When we launch a trailer, we expect it to be done in a huge ground amidst hundreds of students. However, even if the trailer was launched online only at 7 pm in the evening, we kept showing it to students across several colleges in Vijayawada through the day. We literally went to meet our target audience and we couldn’t have asked for anything more.

I think many films should take cue from us (laughs). Ustaad is made for the younger lot - beyond the romance, it’s a story of a character’s ambition that the college going crowd will relate to. Ustaad’s team is full of newcomers and we’re no stars but they cheered and connected with the trailer; some even wanted us to play it many times and rooted for us.

The never-ending debate about the industry’s willingness to cast Telugu-speaking girls

I honestly don’t understand the debate around the presence of Telugu-speaking actresses in our industry. When people say Telugu girls are finally getting a chance to prove their worth, one must remember how Sridevi, Savithri ruled the roost many decades ago. Of course, Telugu is my strength. The directors of all my films wanted to cast a Telugu speaking girl.

I need to credit the writers and directors for bringing about this change. Honestly, knowing Telugu can’t be the only criterion to choose someone for a film. I also want to work in Tamil and Malayalam industries some day. Beyond language, one must fit the part well. It’s a business and we’re all trying to do what’s best for us.

The importance of promotions for small-budget films

At the success meet of Masooda, my co-star Bandhavi said that the film was barely promoted and I agree with her. Except for Sangeetha, all of them were newcomers in Masooda. It went like a wildfire after release. There was barely 30-40% occupancy on the first day. Within a couple of days, there were housefull boards in huge theatres in Hyderabad. The film did the talking.

Balagam, at least, was promoted well and we hosted screenings prior to release. It was produced by Dil Raju who was confident about the film and had the access to push it too. It was the first ever film in Dil Raju’s career (spanning 50 projects) that he showed to his own village in Nizamabad prior its release. It was a risk but it paid off. The screenings really helped spread the word about the film.

We hosted a pre-release event in Sircilla and that drew huge crowds only because of KTR’s presence. I really liked how Mem Famous team promoted their film; some were irritated but it ultimately created an impact. Regardless of the promotion we do for Ustaad, what we’ll do is to tell people that such a film exists and ultimately it’s the content that’ll take it forward.

The risk of releasing a film in the same week as Bholaa Shankar, Jailer

I’m sure our producers are confident about the output. Big or small, Telugu audiences lap up a film when it’s genuinely good. I don’t think we should be scared to clash with two films - we’re happy that Ustaad will be on audience’s watchlist in the same week as Bholaa Shankar and Jailer. It’s a long weekend and if they don’t get tickets for either of the films, they will watch Ustaad.

If she’s enjoying the liberty of choosing scripts after tasting success

I don’t know if I still have the liberty to choose my projects. However, the number of films coming my way have increased with two hits. Actors like me are not stars and we can’t still set up projects; we can just choose from what we get. Of course, I’m in a good place where people are writing roles keeping me in mind. Whether I say yes to a film or not, the process is exciting and I’m grateful to directors and writers.

Uniqueness of Ustaad’s album

Ustaad’s songs (composed by Akeeva) flow very linearly into the story and they take the story forward. The music and the background score blend with the plot - all of them are montage songs. The lyrics, the song take the viewer through the next phase of the protagonists’ life. Every number has its identity; we didn’t focus on the catchiness and only saw how it was apt for the situation. Our music label believes that the songs will grow on listeners once the film is out in theatres.

The similarities between the small-town setting in Ustaad, Balagam

Ustaad is in a happy setting and Balagam revolves around death. Ustaad is set in a town while Balagam unfolds in a village (though I was a town girl in it too, owning an iPhone and doing B.Tech). Balagam follows a ritual after a patriarch’s death, Ustaad traces the life of an ambitious character. My looks in the film are different too. The similarity is quite obvious - both of them are Telangana centric.

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