Director Lakshmikanth Chenna's Run is the first Telugu original feature film to have a direct release on OTT. The film is all set to release on the Aha platform on May 29. The Navdeep starrer is a psychological thriller in which a husband tries to unravel the mystery of his wife's death. The story revolves around one murder and six suspects.
With the ongoing lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, several films which were meant for a theatrical release, have opted for OTT platforms. However, Run was always intended to be a direct OTT film, from the script stage.
The director says that working on this film for Aha has been a dream come true experience.
Why did you choose to do a direct OTT film instead of theatrical release?
Basically, we made this project as an original web series for Aha. However, when the movie was screened, the creative team at Aha was impressed. Allu Arvind, who's also part of the Aha team, said that this should be released as an original feature film on Aha, the first of its kind in Telugu.
How did the transformation from web series to feature film go?
In a span of 24 days, we finished the shooting in the months of October-November last year. The initial film was divided into 8 episodes of 20 minutes each. Later, when it was decided to turn it into a feature film, we made changes accordingly. Now the film is 120 minutes long since it is difficult to grab the audience's attention beyond that point on OTT platforms.
Can you tell us about the film?
It is about a loving married couple who one day plan to go to a restaurant for lunch. The husband reaches the restaurant first and waits for his wife to come. However, he's informed by his neighbours that his wife has been found dead. Later, he's considered to be one of the suspects and he has to be on the run to find out the truth.
It's a psychological thriller movie, where the script manages to excite the audience with its suspense and action sequences. The entire cast is waiting for its official release eagerly. The film was earlier scheduled to release in the month of March. However, it got delayed at the post production stage since we all had to work from home due to the lockdown.
Tell us about the cast.
The film has several seniors in the case who were very professional. We have Navdeep in the lead role, and his dedication levels were amazing. He attended the shooting and continued to do action scenes even when he was suffering back pain as he was working on his six pack.
The film has Pujitha Ponnada as the female lead.There are also versatile actors such as Venkat, Amit Tiwari, Mukthar Khan and others. Singer Kausalya has also made her acting debut through this film.
What do you think of movies releasing directly on OTT platforms? Are they profitable?
OTT is the future. Earlier, there were doubts about releasing movies online. But with the lockdown, several films are releasing online. There will also be several films which will be exclusively made for OTT platforms and this will be profitable. We are happy to begin the trend in the Telugu film industry.
Working with Allu Arvind sir is like a blessing. Every script writer tends to show his writing to him. And he liked our script and said that it should be the first feature film from Aha. It's a great feeling to cherish.
The film trailer is already out and has started gathering attention. Navdeep is seen running to prove that he has not killed his wife and meanwhile he's trying to catch the culprit in the trailer. The film has been produced by Krish Jagarlamudi and Rajeev Reddy of First Frame Entertainment.
Watch the trailer here: