The spy thriller Goodachari and Major, the biopic of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, saw Sobhita Dhulipala enact brief yet pivotal parts. While she had become a household name with web series and straddled both indie and mainstream film space across languages, an author-backed character in a Telugu film was still a distance away. Understandably, Sobhita speaks with enthusiasm about Cheekatilo (in the darkness), her Telugu feature film that will stream on Amazon Prime Video from January 23. The crime thriller features Sobhita as a true crime podcaster.
Directed by Sharan Kopishetty, who has co-written the film with Chandra Pemmaraju, the Prime Video original film is also the first original feature film in the digital space for leading Telugu film producer Suresh Babu Daggubati.
Sobhita describes the experience of portraying a Telugu-speaking podcaster as “sheer joy. Telugu is my mother tongue. I think in Telugu and I am very comfortable speaking the language. And since Sandhya (her character) is a verbose podcaster, I could understand the pauses and gaps in the dialogues as part of the performance.”
The forced silences
Cheekatilo follows the journey of the protagonist who studies criminology, becomes a journalist and later a podcaster. Sobhita explains how a childhood incident shapes her personality: “When something happens to Sandhya, she speaks about it within the safe space of her family. But it does not get the attention it requires. It silences her. I believe there are no silent people, only silenced ones. I had to understand what makes Sandhya persistent in her choices and how her actions help find a closure for herself and in the process, benefits others.”
Sobhita in the film; producer Suresh Babu
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
It is this childhood incident and how the family pushes things under the carpet, says Suresh Babu, that makes the story compelling. “When a story is pitched to me, I analyse what makes it unique. This story has a female podcaster and an element of social commentary. I have been privy to how families hush up an issue; it could be a child’s attention deficiency syndrome. In Cheekatilo, a young girl is molested and there is silence. I think it is important to convey that issues need to be discussed — to help the person find the strength to not be weighed down by it. The story also has an interesting whodunnit aspect. The script was fairly detailed when it came to me, and we suggested a few changes.”
Having been an independent producer who has been helming Ramanaidu Studios for decades, he says working on this film helped him understand the corporate method of work. “We have been making films in specific languages for specific markets, and it was good to understand Prime Video’s method of work when they make films for different pockets of a global market. The major difference is though the digital platform has several levels of approvals, it is a fairly streamlined process.”
Two of Suresh Productions’ earlier films, Krishna and His Leela and Narappa, were made for theatrical release but opted for the digital route during the pandemic. Making a film primarily for digital consumption, however, has a different dynamic, says the producer: “There are stories that work on OTT but may not get the numbers in theatres, and vice versa. Not having the box office pressure while working on a digital film might be a relief, but my fear was gauging if we were fine tuning it enough. For a digital film, the numbers come in slowly and in a different format — we would know how many people watched for how many minutes, and so on. The screenplay needs to be sharper to hold people’s attention. We have a few more stories in the pipeline for digital-only feature films.”
Snapshots from ‘Cheekatilo’
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Prime Video
Sobhita, having worked in web series Made in Heaven, Bard of Blood and Night Manager, says she has learnt to gauge the response to her work in the digital space going by pop culture references that seep into social media or when she is pitched similar characters in series, films, or commercials.
When asked if the lack of box office numbers for the online space has been liberating, she says with a smile, “Irrespective of numbers, I make my choices with clarity. I want people to watch my work.”
Early on as a newcomer, she had stated that she likes to portray characters that are conflicted so that she can punch above her weight. “Young words,” she reflects with a laugh, and adds, “Like how a rocket takes off into space by letting go of excess weight, I have let go of assumptions of how I need to mould my career. I am inspired by characters that have an agency. In this film, Sandhya is headstrong, confronts her fears, and stands up for what she thinks is right. I found that inspiring.”
The inner worlds
Since her debut in Raman Raghav 2 to Monkey Man, Kalaakaandi to Ponniyin Selvan, Sobhita says her process of getting into the headspace of characters has been to understand their inner worlds. “Once I understand that, I try to emote from an understanding of how that character would express herself. It would be odd if all the characters I portray expressed anger, sadness or happiness the same way.”
Asserting that she intends to take up more work in Telugu cinema, Sobhita says, “I look at Cheekatilo as a bridge to reconnect with the Telugu audience. I did not have a reference point on how I wanted to shape my filmography. I realised that I had to forge my own path and have the courage to try out new things. Even when a film had not worked commercially, it was gratifying when it paved the way for other good opportunities. Some films have worked, some haven’t, but I have this unique string of pearls that has become my filmography.”
(Cheekatilo streams on Prime Video from January 23)
