Saif is hyper-energetic in his head

Saif is hyper-energetic in his head

    Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK are probably the first director duo who are not real brothers.
    They are both 40 and did their software engineering together at Venkateswara University in Tirupati, after which they moved to the US to do software consulting. They have successfully been able to cross the initial barriers they faced of being the non-Hindi speaking engineers from the US who wanted to make films. Ahead of the release of their film Go Goa Gone, Bombay Times spoke to them. Excerpts: 

Being software engineers, how did you get into direction? While we were working in the US, we started writing stories together and put in our own money to make our first film Flavours and travelled the world with it. That gave us a lot of confidence that it could probably be our career. We decided to come to Mumbai and wrote 99. It took about four years to make the film and we realised that Mumbai was an expensive city to live in. So, we went back to the US for two years to make and save money to come back here and not build a career there. 99 became a sleeper hit and we then got to make Shor In The City with Ekta Kapoor. We then wanted to make a slacker comedy (guys who slack and don’t work and just play video games, sit around and are not into a career or an ambition). We introduced zombies into it and made Go Goa Gone. Our core strength is comedy in a quirky sense. 

Why have you both chosen to be single so far? Our parents were always pushing us to get married but our film careers took over our lives for the last 10 years and making films, for us, was a burning ambition. So, we both didn’t get married because with a family and responsibility, we could not have lived the nomadic life we were living, thinking 24 hours about cinema. Changing careers and lifestyles took all our time. But now, after Go Goa Gone, there is a little bit of stability and we are now thinking about marriage as it would give us more balance in our lives.  

 

How difficult is it to work together as a director jodi? We have minor creative differences, but we started as an entity and feel that writing and making films together come naturally to us. Filmmaking involves a lot of discussion and is always a teamwork. In our case, instead of talking to our inner voice, we talk to each other. Even the most independent directors need to take opinion of others, who are a part of the team, making the film. It’s always collaborative and never a one-man show. There are many examples of successful director duos — Abbas-Mustan, the Coen brothers and the Wachowski brothers. Of course, they are real brothers, though we are friends. 

How was your experience working with Ekta Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan? With Ekta, she knows the script and gives you her inputs. After that, she pretty much lets you be independent and will discuss the film at the end. Dinoo (Dinesh Vijan) and Saif are different. While Saif is a producer in a broad way, Dinoo is the creative producer and is a great collaborator. We were pleasantly surprised when Saif sat with us for eight hours after the film was shot to discuss it. He watched the film over and over again, getting excited, walking around and giving his feedback. He was objective and tells you where to edit. Saif is hyperenergetic in his head and has multiple things going on in his mind. He has a childlike enthusiasm and will throw a lot of ideas at you that you are welcome to take if you want to. Even after so many years of doing movies, he still gets so excited. 

As software engineers, you could have made a lot of money. Any regrets? We don’t miss the job at all. We were each making over a quarter million dollars a decade back, but were living a monotonous life of going to office every day and doing the same things day after day. Engineering teaches you to be organised and it comes handy. Making a film is as much about creativity as it is the ability to be systematic. Our experiences of living that monotonous life shows up in our films. The song Khoon choos le, bloody khooni Monday comes from there. While money was not important for us, we are happy that now, we are able to make more money than we would have made as software engineers. 

Are you whacky in your real lives? No, we are regular guys who study and work hard. And no, we don’t have any tattoos and don’t smoke up. But in Spider-Man 2, while we like to see Spiderman on the top of the train stopping it, what we like more is that he is not able to climb a wall and is taking the elevator and is adjusting his pants. 

Being from Tirupati, are you both religious? We do believe in Balaji, but are moderately religious. Tusshar and Ekta are way bigger Balaji devotees than us. However, before every film, we always do a full Mumbai darshan and go to the Siddhivinayak temple, Mahalakshmi, Mount Mary and Haji Ali.

Raj Nidimoru

Krishna DK

Raj Nidimoru with Krishna DK