Exclusive! Director Shree Karthick: Oke Oka Jeevitham was a journey that helped me relive my time with mom again

On paper, the bilingual Oke Oka Jeevitham/Kanam, that hits theatres this Friday, may be a feature film debut for director Shree Karthick. However, he has been gearing up for the big stage for a while now. If it was dance and his acting ambitions that piqued the storyteller in him, it was his experience of directing a handful of short-films and ads that sharpened his grip over the visual medium. From the day he signed Oke Oka Jeevitham, it has been a five year long wait to see his efforts attain fruition. In this chat with OTTplay.com, he takes us through his life before, during and after the making of the Sharwanand, Amala Akkineni, Ritu Varma starrer.

The clash of multiple identities and ambitions - as a dancer, actor and now, a director

It was a process of self-discovery. During my engineering days, I was known for my dancing skills and my ambition was to start a dance school someday. I even went for reality shows and many people said that I expressed well with my moves, encouraging me to try my hand at acting. It didn’t click that well, I was frustrated with the functioning of the industry until I realised that I enjoyed writing and storytelling more than acting. I started writing frequently and I wanted to see my story on the screen too - then the direction aspect came in. I did short films, directed 30-40 ads and felt that storytelling was integral to my identity. Dance and acting ambitions brought me to where I am today.

Translating his vision onto the screen and mastering a new medium

I and my other friend (who produced) teamed up for a few short films. To get a grasp over the medium, we did many projects - shorts, ad films. It was the determination to see what I’ve written and translate it onto the screen that drove us all along. Every project was a learning curve and helped me master the visual medium, got me to understand the difference between writing and directon.

Moving on from ad films, shorts to embracing the long-form narrative

I don’t agree with the notion that ad-filmmakers may not be good feature-film directors. I genuinely believe they could be better writers - they’re very good at conveying an emotion or an idea within 30 seconds. I came out as an improved writer from the experience. It’ll help you draft a screenplay well, keep the story engaging, package a lot within a limited amount of time and know which scene will work and won’t. The transition from ad-films to features was quite seamless for me and it wasn’t hard. I also went through many workshops to understand screenplay writing better.

One thing I can agree with is that ad-filmmakers tend to focus on the visual aesthetic more than the story. However, feature storytelling was always my dream. I honestly took to ad-films for livelihood, it pays well. With Kanam/Oke Oka Jeevitham, we’ve been conscious enough to write for the film language and I believe it’ll work with the audiences.

Your short film ‘Childhood Diaries’ ends with a line where a voiceover talks about a rewind button and the desire to revisit your childhood, given a chance. Did the feature film idea begin there?

No, it all started from pain and a personal story. I lost my mother seven years ago. When I wanted to write a short film, I was clueless about where to start but I realised what I really wanted from life. Writing gives you the wings to imagine and build a world, play as you please. I understood that my biggest want is to meet my mother again. I imagined myself doing that and that was the starting point of Kanam. I built the story with that emotion.

On straddling between science and entertainment for Oke Oka Jeevitham

It was an interesting challenge. You can’t make an entire film about the mother-son drama. The task was to entertain them and our other main important reason was to make the audience go back in time. When you deal with time, you have to deal with science. We made sure there are two layers in the script - the sci-fi layer and the emotional layer. While one side of the film deals with the hero’s emotion, a couple of other characters are in place to deal with the sci-fi aspect. Bringing these worlds together was an intriguing prospect and gave us the platform to write the story with twists and turns. Of course, the science part in the film is new but also simple enough for a regular viewer to digest. There’s nothing technical about it and it doesn’t resemble any film. We don’t have the luxury of spending hugely on the VFX and our idea does the trick.

If it was traumatic to go back in time to think about your mother’s death while making the film

I had a regret that I couldn’t spend enough time with my mother despite knowing that she may not be around for too long. Time was a playful element in my life for many years. Only when nature said that my mom had a limited time, I took ‘time’ seriously. I was praying that the time would go slow but it didn’t. In my world, I wanted to spend enough time with her. While writing the story based on that idea was no doubt traumatic, it was also meaningful, emotional and gave me a chance to re-live my time with her again. When I was narrating the emotion to someone, everyone could relate with it because most of them would’ve dealt with the loss of a loved one in their lives at some point. I felt the importance of writing this story during my narration. Even for the viewer, the experience won’t be painful, they’ll relive that time and still gain something out of it. The team and the actors could sense that meaning.

On showcasing childhood in all its innocence through his films - evident in ‘Childhood diaries’and now, Oke Oka Jeevitham

In Childhood Diaries, I have written a version of a child’s story. It’s my adult version of how would a child imagine or react in such a situation. While filming these portions, I sit with the kids, I give them the story and see how they behave and tweak my script accordingly. I am an adult who’s writing about a 12-year-old protagonist and I can’t be 100% right about its portrayal. So, I give my narration to the kid and get his feedback, collaborate with them actively. You can’t simply ask kids to come to set and deliver a few lines. You have to ask them about their reaction to a situation, notice their body language and rework it accordingly.

Reuniting with your frequent short film collaborators - Sreejith Sarang, Sujith Sarang and Jakes Bejoy - for the feature debut

We’ve been like brothers, close associates for more than seven years. For a first-time filmmaker, it’s always tricky to get their debut right. It takes them many years to get there but for technicians, the process is easier. Sreejith, Sujith and Jakes have already worked on a dozen films by now but when they came together for Oke Oka Jeevitham, they knew its significance in my career. They’ve worked on this as if it’s their first film, they have invested in it emotionally and I can promise that it’ll be technically brilliant. It’s a dream team uniting for a dream story - that’s how I’ll sum up Kanam.

The prospect of catering a story to the tastes of audiences in multiple languages

When I pitched the story to Dream Warrior's SR Prabhu, I thought of making it a small-budget film under a Rs 4-5 crore budget. It was he who felt that the film deserved a bigger scale. That I knew both Tamil and Telugu well convinced him that it had to be made as a bilingual. We made sure it’s authentic equally in Telugu. We had the presence of Tharun Bhascker with the dialogues, we changed the cast slightly for both versions and I managed it easily.

Oke Oka Jeevitham isn’t a rooted story and is set in a semi-urban backdrop. Telugu and Tamil audiences share a lot in common excepting a few cultural differences. We’re not dealing with culture in the film but emotions. The mother sentiment works even better with Telugu audiences than Tamil. I am confident that both audiences will connect with it similarly.

If there was a threat to your creative freedom during the making, given the biggies involved - Dream Warrior Pictures, Sharwanand, Amala

Actors and producers expect one thing mainly from directors - clarity. You tell them the story, the core emotion and time it’ll take. Once they come on board, they take note of your skill, how you work around in the set for a couple of days and once they’re confident, they surrender to you completely and leave it to you. They come into the picture only when a filmmaker doesn’t have the clarity, struggles to communicate his ideas or when the intention and the execution don’t match.

Since I’ve enough experience in the field, I knew my shot division, the time-limit, the way I approach the lead actors and I came prepared. They never tinkered with the creative aspect once they saw my work and earned trust. Before going to shoot, Dream Warrior always has a system of script-reading and comes up with doubts about the script. We worked on the script for two years, there was a creative producer who pointed out aspects that didn’t work and refined it all along. When the film went on floors, they observed me for a few days and left everything to me later.

Final word on Oke Oka Jeevitham

I’ve been with the project for over five years. I’d signed the project in 2017 and the entire experience has been like a wave swinging between attachment and detachment. When I was getting restless about the wait, I detached myself from it and when we resumed shoot, I was all pumped up again. This is a film that needed time and I’m glad I got it. It was extremely fulfilling to watch the finished product on the big screen two weeks ago. I just forgot all the five years that went behind it. I’m satisfied, more patient and have experience of directing two films in as many languages. The film has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions for me. Now that I’ve submitted the final copy, I’m relaxed and partially nervous. The film will be a fulfulling experience for all. You can sense the result of a film from the energy we share with the technicians and they’ve responded positively.