Saindhav - All you need to know about Venkatesh’s 75th film with Sailesh Kolanu

Amid huge expectations, Venkatesh’s 75th film Saindhav, an action thriller directed by Sailesh Kolanu, releases in theatres on January 13. Venkat Boyanapalli backs the film under Niharika Entertainment while the likes of Baby Ssara, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Arya, Shraddha Srinath, Ruhani Sharma, Andrea Jeremiah and others essay crucial roles. The film’s trailer was launched today.

At the event, the director revealed that the story idea struck him during the COVID-19 lockdown, when a patient diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy and his parents asked his help for a crowd-funding campaign. He imagined a fictional story through the lens of his parents and the pain they may have faced to secure an injection worth Rs 17 crore for the gene replacement.

While the filmmaker maintains that he’s taken commercial liberties to tell the story, Sailesh has ensured enough detailing to back the premise. As per the director, the symptoms of a patient with such a condition could reveal itself at different stages in children’s lives. The social messaging in the film isn’t intentional but situational, he informs. The story is set in the fictitious port city Chandraprastha.

Also read: Director Sailesh Kolanu - I’ve exhausted all my filmmaking abilities in Saindhav

Sailesh impressed Venkatesh enough with his research and detailing, while structuring the film within the grammar of a thriller. Venkatesh states he always wanted to do the kind of Hollywood films that starred Denzel Washington or Bruce Willis, that have stylised action and backed by a strong emotion. The new-age film gave him a chance to experiment with his body language.

Though some expressed concerns about Venkatesh, who has a loyal fan following among family audience, doing a hyper-violent film, the star insists that the emotion is the soul of the story and violence is only incidental. He’s confident that children or family crowds won’t be put off by the action and feels video games have more violence than films lately.

‘Keep your hankies ready,’ Venkatesh states on a lighter-note, mentioning how the emotional scenes in the film have come out well. Reportedly, the producers requested him to be ‘extra’ enthusiastic with the promotions, given it was his 75th film. The director also states that working with the star has calmed him as an individual.

Venkatesh opines that five films clashing during the Sankranthi season is ‘unfortunate.’ “I don’t interfere with these aspects generally. We’ll try to manage a release in the screens we get. Audiences are smart enough to decide what they want to watch. I hope all films are good and make money. I’m happy Mahesh Babu’s Guntur Kaaram is releasing in the same week,” he added.

Also read: Venkatesh calls Saindhav one of his career-best films, promises a realistic, new-age action thriller 

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