Gaali Sampath, a survival drama of its kind: Director Anil Ravipudi

Anil Ravipudi mentored 'Gaali Sampath' in the screenplay and supervision.

Star director Anil Ravipudi doesn’t categorise cinema as commercial and art form as he believes it is his unceasing urge to tell stories on screen is that drives him to explore the new pattern of stories every time. “It is for audiences to decide, in the end, we just tell stories” he smiles.

Anil Ravipudi mentored ‘Gaali Sampath’ in the screenplay and supervision. It is a movie that tells the story of a person who accidentally falls in a 30-feet abandoned well and how he is rescued from the claws of death. Technically, Anil Ravipudi worked with the movie from the scratch, giving inputs in the script and the locations that would be aptly suited for the story.

“When I first heard the title, I was under an impression that the titular character Gaali Sampath is someone who fit-for-nothing guy. An aimless geek, drifting in whichevery way the wind blows. I was moved by the story in the end. Movies like Cast Away, Life of Pi, 127 Hours — none have explored such genres of survival drama on the Telugu silver screen. ‘Gaali Sampath’ fits into this category,” says Anil Ravipudi.

Anil Ravipudi speaks high of director Anish Krishna for the way the latter handled the project. “A sensible filmmaker succinctly knows the measure of a story that should run on screen. Cinematographer Sai Sriram’s excellent expertise have added vibrance to the screen. My longtime friend S Krishna came with a story that he wished to tell audiences. And everything fell in place”

The story is about son-father Sree Vishnu and Rajendra Prasad, both having different trajectories of mindsets. “Rajendra Prasad as a speech-impaired person feels a sense of hostile with nature. How he travels with nature is another beautiful element shown in the movie. Everything is blended perfectly with the narrative. Since it was shot against a village backdrop, it ooze liveliness. There is no loud laugh humour like trademark movies. If audiences could come to theatres to witness how a person is rescued from a well, they could expect the thrill. It’s an emotionally driven story.”

Talking about Rajendra Prasad’s passion to work for ‘Gaali Sampath’ during the peak winter nights in Araku, Anil Ravipudi says an artiste of his age doesn’t need to take such risks. “But for the passion he has for cinema, he was hellbent on doing the sequences, in the spine-chilling cold, an undying passion is still driving him these long decades on the silver screen. Since the character ‘Gaali Sampath’ is a speech-impaired man, he often utters “Ufff..”. It took a lot of effort for Rajendra Prasad while dubbing it,” he says.

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