Asvins director Tarun Teja: Audiences pay for a horror film because they want to get spooked | Exclusive

Tarun Teja, who rose to prominence with his pathbreaking horror short Asvins during the lockdown, is out to expand the scope of its premise into a full-fledged feature film for his big-screen debut. The Telugu boy settled in Chennai is deservedly getting a Tamil-Telugu bilingual release for Asvins, bankrolled by Sri Venkateswara Cine Chitra, a high-profile production house known for churning out commercial fares frequently and backing the occasional experiment.

In a chat with OTTplay.com, the debutant takes us through the making of Asvins and how he strived to tell its story across multiple departments.

Life before Asvins - the short film and the feature film debut:

I moved to Germany in 2012 to pursue my Masters, I started building a indie community there and made a handful of short films that were selected in film festivals. I am an engineer by qualification who earned a Ph.D in industrial engineering and my focus was on noise and vibration. I was making independent films simultaneously, I visited my home in Chennai and couldn’t go back during lockdown. When we were all restricted to our homes, I wanted to make a short film - Asvins happened, the producer Bapineedu (sir) watched it, was impressed and we had a video call session after which the project took off.

On exploring duality through the Asvins story from Rig Veda:

I never knew about Asvins before the short film. I had two horses and wanted to use it as a prop for my short film and was checking for any possible mythological connection (with the animal) in our texts. I was surprised to know that Asvins were the third highest mentioned deities in Rig Veda, studied about them in detail, what they represent and their connection with medicine, their ability to bring back mortals to life. When I read the scriptures, I felt I could make my own fiction out of it.The duality aspect is often discussed in our daily lives and there are two sides to every coin. I tried to explore it on a deeper level and connect it with the good versus evil angle in the story.

Convincing a mainstream film producer to back Asvins:

When I discussed the story with Bapineedu sir, he was very impressed and sensed its ability to connect with audiences at various levels. There are several layers to the film and what they’ll connect with is dependent upon their mindset. As a producer, Bapineedu is a firm believer in content and trusted me with its execution. He liked the visual experience provided by the short film and I tried to interpret the story across multiple departments - sound, cinematography, colour grading, performances. We used every technical aspect to convey a dimension of the story. He generally doesn’t like short films but he gave a nod to this.

Challenges of translating a short film into a full-fledged feature:

Fear is a very primal emotion and everybody gets connected to it.I wanted to expand its scope without compromising on the entertainment value. It’s very tricky and I wanted to understand the grammar of a horror tale. Sound can be a great weapon to aid the storytelling but I had to use it judiciously and efficiently. How do I explore fear and entertain them at the same time? That’s the challenge I faced. The second half, I wanted to delve deeper into the psychological aspect and give audiences a proper understanding of what I was striving to tell. I had to find an efficient method to enhance the viewing experience. The fear element needs to work for any horror tale to click and we developed the film accordingly.

On creating two worlds with a distinct visual palette in the film:

When we’re telling a story of two worlds/realms, there needs to be a clear distinguishing factor and the visuals need to register well. For the parallel universe, I wanted to keep the aesthetics simple and didn’t want the CG to dominate the ambience. I wanted to use a new style of lighting and tried to create a distinction more with the actor’s performances across the worlds. It’s the strong performances that create a telling impact and transport us into a different world.

Telling the story of Asvins through colour-grading:

I tried to use colour grading more from the perspective of the audiences and I wanted them to reverberate according to the film’s ambience. The first hour provides your conventional thrills, chills and I leave you with a few questions during the intermission. By the second hour, I habituate audiences to understand the psyche of a character/mood of the situation through colours. The fact that we’ve given them a flavour of it initially, we could play around with it more.

Striking a balance between the commercial requirements for the genre and conveying the core idea of the film:

The first hour in Asvins is basically is an attempt to cater to the horror enthusiasts and give what they expect out of a genre film - the use of the silences, jumpscares, sound, true to conventional tropes of a horror tale. Audiences pay for a horror film because they want to get spooked and you need to give them what they desire. Initially, I give them the time to get used to the setting and make them feel that they’re trapped. Once I condition their minds, I wanted to explore the psychological journey of Arjun.

The efforts to ensure a compelling aural experience:

In terms of sound, it’s important to stay true to the needs of the genre while also meeting the expectations of viewers. In a film if there’s a single character in a dark room and he hears the sound of someone whispering - you can choose to make it loud or play it subtly and also have to understand the threshold limit of audiences - how long you need to play the sound to create the intended impact? Sound is a weapon that needs to be used properly to get audiences involved or you lose them completely. The sound designer put in 300 hours for soundscape development alone, creating reverberations for dialogues in both realms. Though audiences may not see through these things evidently, these aspects matter for an authentic, holistic viewing experience. You can only enjoy that on a big screen.

On the short film - feature film leap:

Bapineedu sir made sure I felt very comfortable. I was taken care of and I had a wonderful team from SVCC. A filmmaker evolves with the audience and I understand the medium from how they react to my film in the cinema halls. I think Bapi sir shares that vision and the banner has always stood up for good content. I really loved the fact that they backed Ninnila Ninnila a couple of years ago - Bapinnedu sir comes with the vision and offers the right guidance to filmmakers.

The idea to blend his personal experiences with a pivotal character in Asvins:

It was intentional and I wanted the character’s identity to contribute to the film. As a test engineer, I am someone who understands frequency variations and how vibrations translate to the seat in a car. The best way to highlight that Asvins is a film where sound design is one of its USPs is to create a character who is a sound engineer aspirant. His identity is quite crucial to the film and I got the idea when I was exploring the psyche of the characters during the scripting stage.

Working with Vasanth Ravi and helping him deliver his full potential:

He said yes to the film within the very first narration. I said that I wanted to know him better so that I could utilise his abilities to the fullest. We had a workshop before the making; Vasanth Ravi has an intense role and we worked together on the minutest of details. The workshop helped me understand the styles of other actors too - I wanted to capture their best expressions. I didn’t want to simply go behind the camera and ask them to act. I need to make the actors understand at least 70% of my ideas so that they can interpret them according to my imagination. I was very comfortable with Vasanth and he’s a phenomenal actor.

The major takeaways from the Asvins experience:

I learnt a lot of things from the experience. Being an indie filmmaker, you’re generally used to finishing things quickly and work around your limitations. The nature of a working on a big-screen mainstream film is different - you need to prepare your actors on-screen and the technicians behind the screen. Thanks to SVCC and Bapineedu sir, I think I’ve developed as a filmmaker through the journey of making Asvins.

We had issues with permissions in a few scenes and I had to rush through the process without compromising on the cinematic value. The production team was immensely supportive through my thick and thin. As a filmmaker, you tend to doubt yourself at a few stages. When I watch the finished product, I think I’ve delivered what I wanted to. I am content.

What after Asvins?

I didn’t plan Asvins - the film happened to me unexpectedly. It was a lockdown wonder. We went online, did our research, wrote the script and planned the short film over many calls. The meeting for feature film was to happen in a week and I didn’t have any idea ready by then. Bapineedu sir wanted this to be adapted into a big-screen film. It was destiny. Like this dialogue in the film, nothing in the world is a coincidence. We all had to come together to tell this story. I have a few ideas in my bag now and I hope I get to tell those stories soon.

(Starring Vasanth Ravi, Vimala Raman, Simran Pareek, Muralidaran, Saraswathi Menon in key roles, Asvins releases in theatres on June 29 in Telugu and Tamil)