Trivikram Srinivas keeps 'fighting his fears'

Interestingly, leading director Trivikram Srinivas claims that he always keeps fighting his fears, despite having an illustrious career as writer-director in T-town. "Fighting with my fears has almost become a part of life.

Raising expectations is weighing me down a bit," said the bearded director in an interview to promote his upcoming movie 'Ala Vaikunthapuramloo'. "Either we have to repeat ourselves to play it safe or try something very different.

That's how I made action drama 'Aravinda…' which didn't have my trademark comedy track and stuff. The biggest take-away from 'Aravinda…' was that I could tread a different path.

Particularly, after a dud like 'Agnyathavasi,' I had to keep faith in myself and re-draw my strategies," he added. After tasting big success and silencing his detractors, the filmmaker is back to his comfort zone with 'Ala….'.

"I can't keep experimenting so I am back to my genre with 'Ala..' and it is going to be my kind of movie," he points out. He said that his next film is not a tribute to fatherhood.

"Probably, this doubt arises because of the trailer. But our film is not any kind of tribute to fatherhood but father role has prominence in the film."

The director of 'Aa Aa' rules out any similarities with other films releasing this Sankranthi. "Our film revolves around the plot that we can give an opportunity to man but we can't buy him success and accolades as it all depends on his individual capacities," he informs.

He reiterates that you can't do any story without getting inspired by epics like Mahabharat and Ramayan. "I think everybody would agree with it.

Because it will be difficult to pen stories without their influence somewhere or other," On doing different genre movies, he cryptically says, "King Arjuna was an expert in archery but once-in-a-while he had to wield a sword.

It all depends on situations and opponents," he laughs. He is shrewd enough to understand that the audience admire his work and not him.

"I can clearly detect the love of the viewers for my job. We have to be detached and go on with our work otherwise we will get stuck.

I do respect the likes and dislikes of movie buffs which are limited to that film and they are unbiased." He adores viewers because they watch movies without looking into the caste, creed or religion.

"They laugh for a funny scene or dialogue and drop a few tears for an emotional scene. Frankly, Godliness is state of mind and I can't attribute it to human beings, although there is a term called 'viewers are Gods'," he reasons.

The writer-turned-director who is adept in penning catchy dialogues says, "I don't just think about dialogues as I prefer to be a spontaneous writer.

I don't need to go to far-away destinations for writing as I can do it in the comfort of my home," he points out. Undoubtedly, he is a trail blazer in etching strong women roles in his movies.

"From 1950 to 70s women were holding the fort at homes. Over the years women have evolved and conquering outside world too. I was inspired by my real-life aunt for Nadiya's role in 'Atharintiki…' and my characters flesh out due to my respect for multi-tasking women," he adds.

On his films centreing around homes, he explains, "Even in 'Ala…' the story happens in the house named 'Vaikunthapuramlo'. Why hero steps into that house forms the crux of the story.

I was happy when Allu Arjun gave a thumbs up to this unusual title," On not churning out pan-India movies, he says, "I haven't got a story to reach out to pan-India viewers."

He rules out any fascination for alphabet 'A' since his films had titles like 'Atharintiki…' and 'Arvinda…'. "It just happened so don't attribute anything to it."