TV actor Sharavan Reddy, handsome and talented, mentions to IndianWikiMedia that he had no major qualms enacting a nude scene for his new short film Karma (Sony Liv and HungamaPlay).
“At first, I had hesitation, hence had proper discussions with the producers (Ramman Handa and Gaurav Sadarangani) who convinced me about the need to have this scene in the narrative. Our story is grey; no one is black or white. I also felt happy for they told me that the story was written keeping me in view. Furthermore, I agreed for I understand that this kind of stuff is also required for the international film festivals circuit we wish to target and at the end of the day our producers need to make money. ”
Quite sensible in approach, we must admit.
Talking about the shooting process, Shravan shares, “The shooting process was quite sanitized, there were no unnecessary people loitering around on set to ensure I was comfortable. Also, it all comes down to your mental block and I preferred to go with the director’s vision.”
So has this scene been added just to create a shock value? “Agreed such stuff is not there in normal TV but the new format gives wings to our creativity. Coming to your question, while I was not privy to discussions in the initial stage, so can’t comment on any such ulterior motives, but whatever talk I had seemed to indicate a creative call.”
Will doing such stuff not antagonize your core GEC audience (Jersey No. 10,Dosti… Yaariyan… Manmarziya nand Krishnadasi). “I don’t think much about these things, and you also need to appreciate that the core young digital audience needs some sort of titillation.”
What reactions have you been garnering? “Since I am in a different frame of mind due to other work commitments, I have not paid much attention to social media chatter. Whatever little I have gathered from friends is that they were pleasantly surprised that I could do something like this given my GEC background.”
“Personally, I am not in favour of s*x being used in online content to draw in eyeballs but then, we are going through a test phase and hope things change down the road and we start to use them as per need.
Talking about the short film concept, he says, “It is quite a challenge for you need to tell the whole story in a short period of time. You can’t go slack like sometime you can do in TV. Also, as an actor the biggest challenge is to get into different emotional moods, as scenes move very fast and the entire shooting process does not take more than two or three days.”
All the best, Shravan.