Director Reveals About His 'Black Money'

Kuchipudi Venkat is known as different director who thinks out of the box and makes films. His Modati Cinema, John Appa Rao 40 Plus have proved that difference in them. He shares how the ignition started in him as film maker in his childhood. He also reveals about his black money that helped him in screening his first show. Here is that nostalgic vintage experience in his words: ONE FRAME A small story about my romance with One Frame.. I went to a very strict boarding School called LPS (Loyola Public School) a 100 acre campus in a village called Nallapadu near Guntur. I was crazy about films since a kid. I wanted to share with you an incident which happened when I was eleven. As I assume that most of you are aware, that a one sec run time of a film (for normal action) has 24 frames in it ie equal to 24 slide shots. My dream was to have a film slide show in one of our dormitories on a Sunday afternoon. I mean to show a projected image on one the walls of of our dormitories. I was also equally eager to show off my movie passion to everyone. I set out on a plan. FUNDING.. My  source  funding was  the Black money my grandfather used to give me before I set off to my boarding school.( We were not supposed to carry any money with us, hence we used to call this secret money with us, as black money). THE PROJECTOR.. The Projector was made out of a medium sized square cardboard box. One side of the box was fitted with a magnified lens, smuggled in by a day scholar friend of mine.(Who also doubled as Movie mag  smuggler for me).On the other side of the  box  I made a  small cut  to make  space for a single frame, for which again I sought the help of my day scholar friend .The frames  required used to cost me 25 paise each and they  always came as a package. (One Jeedi  pakam( a sweet candy) +  a balloon+ a frame of film). I had a little  or no choice so I never bothered which film the frame belonged to, my focus was to make the show happen, in Telugu there is a saying "Bomma kanipinchinda leda". Well that was my aim then. PHYSICS There  was a small technique involved in this which I learned from my physics class and put it use, the frame has to placed upside down to get the projected picture right on the screen. THE SOURCE LIGHT I needed the source light for the projection so I picked the mirror from my toilet box and borrowed another one from my friend, armed with both the  mirrors, I sought the help of  two of my friends  to  reflect the sunlight  to the  projector  which was set to  one of the windows of our dormitory. I needed the two sources for a brighter projection. THE THEATRE AND THE SCREEN The theatre was our dormitory, I needed to dim the place so I used the bed sheets to block all the unwanted light. The screen was a white bed sheet set to the opposite wall facing the projector. THE AUDIENCE The audience was never a problem, it was free show and obviously a house full was guaranteed. I remember I even invited a couple of my seniors to show off. MATINEE The timings were also well suited, it was a post lunch recreation on a Sunday afternoon. A perfect matinee show. THE SHOW I asked my projection guys to be ready, it was a sunny afternoon with proper top light so, it was on your marks.. get set..  and go.. As I signaled them, they focused the sunlight to the frame and the show was on, there was loud round of applause, I just jumped in to catch the last of it. THE END But the joy was short lived like a tragic climax. All this commotion drew the attention of our warden, I owned it and the punishment was severe, I was almost thrown out of school. But one good thing in that was that I understood that nothing comes easy in life. (Venkat Kuchipudi can be contacted at venkykuchipudi@gmail.com)