Director Aditya Mandala: Hostel Days explores teenage angst on a deeper level than most campus tales | Exclusive

Aditya Mandala, while assisting on films like Kshanam and Krishna and his Leela, landed an unexpected chance to direct Maa Vintha Gadha Vinuma a few years ago. While the film, ideated for theatrical viewing, arrived on OTT directly, he sensed this was an opportunity to carve his niche in the digital medium. He has directed two OTT adaptations ever since.

After Dead Pixels for Disney+ Hotstar, he returns with Hostel Days, the Telugu version of TVF’s Hostel Daze for Amazon Prime Video, a campus comedy focusing on the hostel life of its pivotal characters. In a chat with OTTplay.com, he discusses the challenges with the genre and how he brought novelty to a familiar backdrop.

Campus stories explore similar themes but they’ve been game-changing hits whenever a filmmaker got it right and enjoy great shelf life too. What’s the trick in making them relevant to the times especially when you, as a filmmaker, are well past your college years?

As you put it right in your question, they enjoy a recall value more than many other genre. And campus dramas like Nuvve Kavali, Happy Days, Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi arrive between a 5-6 year gap and generations too change over time. Whenever the characters talk/behave like them, discuss their issues, these films/shows will become relatable to them. Ultimately, we all say the same thing in different languages and this gives us the opportunity to retell, reinterpret similar stories, tweak the characters and deal with different issues.

As you’ve said, the lingo and the pop-culture references are quite crucial in ensuring the authenticity in the backdrop. How did you achieve that in Hostel Days?

I need to credit my writer Akshay Poolla and the creative producer Nikhil. They made sure the lingo is relevant to this generation and was rooted to the milieu in Telugu states. While I have huge respect to the original, I wanted to deliver something new for Telugu audiences. My attempt was to make audiences feel as if Sai, Yadav, Chitta, Theppa, Kavya and Rithika were new people living amongst us. Even though the characters were inspired by the original, the writing is so nuanced and fresh that you’ll view them as new individuals.

Ragging is always a tricky terrain in such stories. While you want the proceedings to be funny, you don’t want to be insensitive to someone’s trauma…

Ragging is indeed a sensitive topic and it’s not healthy if people cross the line. We’ve been witness to several real incidents where people were traumatised by it. As a filmmaker, the best I can do is to be observant of my surroundings, interpret it differently, make sure I draw boundaries, possibly show how ragging can be healthy. While keeping the tone lighthearted, we added some elements into the show where the seniors don’t indulge in ragging beyond a point. We definitely haven’t glorified it and portrayed that it’s a part and parcel of engineering life.

Did the show offer an opportunity to look back at your engineering years? How similar/different were they from the backdrop in Hostel Days?

Like most Telugu youngsters, I was also an engineering student. I wasn’t a hosteller but had a fair understanding of hostel life through my friends, I remember spending many nights in my friends’ rooms for several weeks. The show gave me a chance to relive a few of those memories on screen. Today’s generation is more vocal than before - be it mental health, feelings, there are many layers waiting to be explored.

The show was an opportunity for me to understand Gen-Z better, the crisis they go through. Teenage angst is something that Hostel Days explores on a deeper level more than other campus stories. Their problems may not seem big to you now, but you need to look through their lens to understand why it affects them so much. A decade ago, we weren’t aware of the terminologies and still experienced them; this generation knows angst, anxiety, and identity crisis and I adopted a fun approach to showcase it.

Has social media any way affected college life?

Though we had social media back then too, I think only the platforms have changed. Even then, we had to belong to a popular social circle or a group, the avenue may have changed to Facebook/Instagram profiles now.

In stories/genres like these where there’s little scope to break new ground, how do you make a difference as a storyteller?

Like filmmakers say, there are only seven stories to be told, but it boils down to how we tell it. It’s not about ‘what’, but how? That’s how we’ve created a new space and told a familiar story differently. We’ve kept the story realistic and funny just in the right measure. I am a filmmaker who likes visual humour and comedy born out of body language.

My writer had already given me great lines, punches and comebacks and we improvised it well visually, thanks to our cinematographer and a bunch of talented actors. When the series ends, I want audiences to miss these characters and see more of them. I think we’ve succeeded in our pursuit.

How do you strike the right balance between the stereotypes of the genre and still not tinker with the soul of the story?

During the making, we didn’t overthink if it’s treading the cliched route because consciously, I am always alert if and when the proceedings take a predictable turn. My team is so collaborative that they wouldn’t hesitate to tell me if we’re doing something too obvious. Our common goal was to represent the pivotal characters the best way possible and for them to grow on audiences.

Could you take us through your creative collaboration with the actors who’re largely newcomers?

We did one week of solid script reading and a workshop prior to the shoot. Even in scenes where they weren’t around, they listened to others’ lines. As a director during these sessions, I observed their modulation. When the emotion was landing well, I gave them the freedom to express the role on their terms. I didn’t interfere with their facial expressions but just explained to them the tone of the dialogues and scenes. I got lucky with the cast and they’re great actors. The whole gang cultivated a friendship among them and all I did was to let translate their chemistry on the screen. It was really refreshing to see that innocence as I directed them.

You, Ravikanth Perepu, Siddhu Jonnalagadda and gang entered the industry with the intent to tell stories where you could express yourself and enjoy creative freedom. However, OTTs and corporates come with a set of obligations/restrictions that you’ve to adhere to. How are you handling this space?

I should thank TVF for being such a collaborative team and giving enough space for the director to reinterpret the story. Even though this was a remake/adaptation, all we were told was to stick to the same theme and we had the liberty to play around with the little details and express ourselves (me and the writer Akshay) freely. They always backed us during the discussions with the OTT platform. Similarly with Tamada Media for Dead Pixels, they were extremely supportive and gave us the freedom to tell the story in a certain way. When the producer trusts the maker, it gives more confidence to the OTTs. As a filmmaker, I am aware of the parameters and the obligations within the OTT space. Once I crack that, the process was quite seamless for me.

While a show like Hostel Days would always have an audience, the bigger challenge would’ve been to adapt a British show Dead Pixels (centred on gaming) in a Telugu setting…

With Dead Pixels, I was aware that this kind of storytelling would be very alien to our audience. While understanding that the concept was experimental, I and the writer wanted to keep the dialogues colloquial and made sure it had the right pop-culture references. With Hostel Days, we knew we were in a familiar territory and all we had to do was to create likeable, memorable characters.

How do you react to the viewer’s indifferent responses to remakes/adaptations lately? Are remakes even necessary in the OTT era?

Our exposure to films/global shows has grown exponentially owing to the digital revolution. Back in my childhood, I had to be lucky to watch Star Movies or any other channel to catch a particular show/move that day. If we missed them, there was little chance to catch them again. Today, the world is your oyster within the click of a remote and there’s a content explosion.

I can’t deny that a section of audiences is against the idea of remakes but within Telugu states, there are still audiences that are more comfortable/relate with watching shows set in their milieu and language. With both Dead Pixels and Hostel Days, the minute I decided to direct them, I didn’t watch the original again and only stuck to the material that was written.

I always remember how the original looked and what it made me feel but I don’t let it influence me beyond a point. In Telugu cinema, the biggest trendsetters have always been remakes and they make us forget the original - Kushi, Shankar Dada MBBS, Gabbar Singh. Every one knew the original but the trick is to make the remake as culturally rooted as possible.