Varun Tej-starrer Ghani is set to hit theatres on Friday and director Kiran Korrapati, who is making his debut with the film, says its climactic boxing sequence was the most difficult to shoot and took 20 days to complete.
Speaking to Silverscreen India about the film, Korrapati, who has also written the script, says, “Ghani is a commercial sports drama filled with emotions. It is about a person who wants to win in their life to prove themselves. Varun plays the titular character Ghani and the film is about how he wins, both in his life and in his career as a boxer. The film will have a strong flavour of sportsmanship, beyond winning or losing.”
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Korrapati reveals he was in talks with the actor for Ghani since the latter’s Tholi Prema (2018) times. “I have worked with him previously as well (he served as co-director on three of the actor’s films), and we have a similar thought process. We wanted to do a film together and I had pitched two or three lines to him. He suggested doing a sports drama and once we finalised the backdrop of boxing, I worked on the script,” he adds.
“The producers (Sidhu Mudda and Allu Bobby) came on board in 2019, but we faced a lot of hurdles due to the pandemic,” says the filmmaker.
Ghani went on floors in February 2020 in Vizag but was halted due to the pandemic-induced lockdown in March 2020. After several delays, it was finally wrapped up in November 2021. It has been shot by cinematographer George C Williams in Vizag, Hyderabad, and Kullu Manali.
“The first half will be set in Vizag, and then the film shifts to Hyderabad for a flashback sequence. The rest happens in Kullu Manali and Delhi,” Korrapati says, adding that the cinematographer used a handheld camera to capture the action within the boxing ring.
Aside from Tej, the cast includes Saiee Manjrekar, Upendra, Sunil Shetty, Naveen Chandra, Jagapathi Babu, and Nadhiya. Manjrekar stars as the female lead and she is making her Telugu debut with the film. Nadhiya plays Tej’s mother, while Naveen Chandra essays the antagonist.
Talking about the various difficulties they encountered during production, the director says, “Varun being 6’3”, we couldn’t find an apt opponent who could both box and act. So, we chose three double heavyweight champions from the national category and trained them to act. Varun also had to maintain his physique for a long time, since we had halted production due to the pandemic. He was on a strict diet and also suffered injuries during shooting.”
Marthand K Venkatesh has edited Ghani. The music is composed by S Thaman and the film will feature three songs.
Korrapati says what will separate Ghani from other sports dramas will be its authentic portrayal of boxing while also staying entertaining. “Basically, in boxing, there are only four moves. With that, I had to show the whole film without monotony. We did a lot of groundwork during the scripting stage itself and then we brought in Dhilip [stunt coordinator Dhilip Subbarayan] during the pre-production. He gave us a lot of inputs and suggestions on how to stage the matches. We also got inputs from foreign stunt coordinators.”
After Ghani, Korrapati is set to work on a film produced by Sudhakar Cherukuri, J Bhagawan and J Pullarao.