Brinda director Surya Vangala interview: Trisha coming onboard was the biggest trump card we had

Director Surya Vangala, whose upcoming series Brinda, is soon to premiere on SonyLIV, says the project on the outlook may be an investigative thriller drama, but it is the backstories that each of the characters get, that makes Brinda a binge-worthy drama.

“The story spans across 40 years, and some of the portions happen in fictional tribal areas. From there on, we have interwoven a lot of backstories, which will come through investigation. Back in 2016, when I found myself in this chaotic world where everything is polarized, and ideologies are thriving on polarization. I had a question on where I am in this world that operates on extremism and what is the place I have. This is very much the question our protagonist Brinda has too, especially when the chaos is closer to her than she thinks,” says the director.

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Brinda director Surya Vangala interview

Surya says that the instances and scenes that were carefully sequenced in Brinda, come from extensive research. “There is a ritual that I read where a godman drops a baby from a height and people have to catch it. In another, a girl was put inside a kennel because she entered a temple whiling having periods. Brinda does not touch upon on particular culture or religion, but addresses the extremities that span across many beliefs,” says Surya as he adds on how while working on the series his thoughts on the concept of God had many encounters.

“What is God, to what extent we believe, how the thought came about, are we serving the god’s purpose or vice versa? These questions drove me to understand how people may have a hopeful relationship with God, but also has a detrimental impact when in the name of God, there is extremism also happening,” he adds.

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The filmmaker’s journey with Brinda began in 2016, when he knew that the genre should be a mix of thriller and drama. “When I started to write the idea, thriller was what in my mind and I wrote as a film. Somewhere, these questions I had were taking backseat so I had to include drama elements. This is where the story had more to give and characters were shown to be layered, which is when it got made into a series.”

Writing Brinda as series

Even as Surya had worked with filmmakers like Hanu Raghavapudi and Sekhar Kammula, it was a discovery once again when he had to write a series which had to have multiple subplots and episodic breakdowns. “We have a cold start for every episode, and the series is very similar writing a book where you can jump perspectives and understand characters. Luckily, I had Padmavathi Malladi, who wrote the screenplay with me,” says Surya.

Asked why he wanted Brinda to be a woman, Surya says, “More than being a man or a woman, I wanted two characters who are polar opposites confronting each other. In fact, it was harder for me to write for a woman, because whatever said and done, I see from a man’s perspective and couldn’t see through the vulnerability and the male hierarchal in the system. In Brinda, there is never a discussion about the character’s love interest or family. A man is never asked this question when a character is in utter chaos.” And in this process, Surya was carefully abled by Padmavathi, who wrote films like Mahanati and Ammu.

“When Padmavathi came in, she brought many changes, on how she would react to situations, and made sure that though the series can be a reality, it should also empower audience and never go below the standards which is regarded natural. For example, the way Brinda stands up for herself is something what Padmavathi wrote and that is how we could bring empathy and layers to the protagonist.”

Casting Trisha and challenges

Surya says that the series’ casting was never confined to being language specific. “It was my producer Ashish Kolla who suggested Trisha’s name who kept seeing her in the role. Though Trisha was not looking to do a series, she read through the script while she was on a flight. It was immediately after she landed, Trisha said she is onboard the project. Now the pressure was on me to carry out the project. We had a reading with all the actors, which generally doesn’t happen. I could see traces of Brinda in her, but when she came on the sets and did the first shot, I could totally see her as Brinda.”

If a regular film shooting might shoot two minutes of footage a day, the major challenge that the crew faced due to the evolving nature of series format and budget constraints, is to shoot about five minutes of footage. “In order to cover 340 minutes of Brinda, there have been times when we worked round the clock continuously and even shot about 10 minutes a day. That was the herculean task, which we completed in about 76 days.”

Now having pulled off Brinda, Surya says that the greatest joy when it comes to doing series is how it is a format that helps to explore storytelling to the fullest. “We are yet in nascent stages when it comes to series. The market has not yet been fully explored and if we could push our boundaries, we will be able to break boundaries. Luckily, I had Trisha playing the lead role. I think you need the best actors and technicians, to bring out the fullest of web series format,” he concludes.