Hello again people! Sanjeevani, the movie has not just one talented person from our college, but two! Yes! The villian of the film, Manoj Chandra is a 2014 B.Tech batch students. He was quite famous for his talent since his college days.
Manoj Chandra,
a regular looking guy with exceptional amounts of talent within! From a
VJ in a TV show to a critical charecter in a motivational movie -
Sanjeevani, hard work and dedication shows in everything he does!
This villian of the film explains in an exclusive interview how he
became the hero of his life with passion as his motivation!
MT : Hi, congrats on Sanjeevani Trailer release!
Manoj Chandra: Thanks a lot Gayathri!
MT : So... How did your journey in television industry start?
Manoj
Chandra: In Jan 2014 i got interviewed with Tech Mahindra and got
selected. Even though I got a job which many people couldn't clear, back
of my mind I wanted to get into films and media. Not just as an actor, I
had plans of hosting TV shows, Directing and Scripting them as well. I
didn't have much contacts in the film industry but had many contacts in
the TV industry. Film offers were never coming as I was an Anchor in Maa
TV and no one would prefer anchors as their actors. But then I had many
plans for TV. I had a concept for a show.
Gayathri Hari : What was the show about?
Manoj Chandra : I invested around 2000rs from my dad and took help of my friends and
made a demo episode of the TV show I wanted to do. Anand Nandu, my
senior from MLRIT has helped write the script. He also did the dubbing
of an actor. Once the project was completed I gave it to Ravi Prakash
from TV9. He accepted the show and also made a deal with me to direct
the show, script it and also Host it on TV9. After receiving such a
response from a leading TV channel I didn't want to take up the TechM
Job. So i started preparing myself for the new career and started
scripting episodes. It is a crime concept. I remember having nightmares while I was scripting the episodes.
MT : How did the show go?
Manoj
Chandra : Everything was going well when there was a case in the High
Court in
which a criminal had confessed that he had committed the crime due to a
crime show. So the High Court has passed an order to ban all the crime
shows. I got a call from Tv9 saying we cannot go further. I was
devastated.I had no choice.I had to takeup the job as the date of
joining was very near. Actor Uday Kiran passed away during the same time
and I had family pressure for not getting into films. And I finally joined TechM and moved to Bangalore after getting trained in Hyderabad for 3 months.
MT : So did you give up on movies then?
Manoj
Chandra : While I was in Hyd for training, I still didn't give up. I
had attended few auditions for movies like Kerintha and Jil. I didn't
get selected for Kerintha but was selected for Jil. When they called me
for Jil, I was in office, during lunch time. When they asked me to come,
I said I would come after office. Meanwhile they gave the role to
someone else. After all this struggle I felt there is no place for me
here. So i left to Bangalore for my work.
MT : How did your second innings begin?
Manoj
Chandra : In November, I came across a post on Facebook with a
wonderful working poster of a movie and the title said "THE MOUNTIAN". I
knew the director. He directed few short films before.The post said,
Actors needed. I sent my pictures like I send everyone. Generally no one
responds but this person did. He asked me for the second lead and
requested me to come down to Hyderabad for auditions. I told him that
I'm an employee in TechM Bangalore. He said even he works for an IT
company and that we will shoot accordingly. So I just gave it a shot and
gave the audition. He was impressed, but he rejected me once I was back
to Bangalore.
MT : Okay... That's an interesting interval bang! What happened next?
Manoj
Chandra: He just mentioned that due to some reasons they had to reject
me.I felt broken again. I went to goa with my friends and came back.Once
i was back, I saw his post saying that the 2nd lead and the villain
role are still open. I asked him why he rejected me.He immediately
called me and told that my acting was wonderful and it was not coz of my
acting skills he had to reject me. It was because I work at Bangalore
and it would be difficult to manage.
MT : Pre- climax looks tempting! Then?
Manoj
Chandra : I asked him if he wants me in.He said Yes, but only if I can
him that I would be present at the shoots on the specified dates. I
said 'Ill ask my manager and get back to you. My manager gave all his
support and I was ready to go. I informed him the same. But there was a
twist waiting for me.
MT : One more twist? Wow! What's that?
Manoj
Chandra :He said there is a small change. I'll have to do the villain
role and not the second lead. I said no. But then he revealed it to me
the script and how critical my role was. I felt lucky!
MT : Wow! That's great!
Manoj
Chandra: I was given a very powerful role and I could see a lot of
acting scope which no director had given me before! I fell in love with
the role he explained.
MT : What's your role exactly?
Manoj
Chandra :I'm playing the role of a professional Mountaineer in the
movie who trains people and takes people on expeditions.
MT : How do you feel being a part of such an exciting project?
Manoj
Chandra : I feel lucky to be apart of such a project and that too
without having to leave my job. Everyone had supported me to achieve
this.I had days without sleep. We used to shoot continously and come
back and do night shifts continuously. But i feel the hard work is now
paying off.
MT : The locations in the trailer look really new! Where did the shoot happen?
Manoj Chandra :We have shot in locations where no telugu movie was shot before. We have shot at various locations around India, including Himalayas, forests of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Nallamalas.
MT : There are a lot of stunts involved in this film. How did you manage to do all those?
Manoj Chandra : We have done stunts without any dupes.We were professionally trained in mountaineering for this film.
MT: What kind of trainings did you have to take?
Manoj
Chandra: Shekar Babu Sir is a professional Mountaineer who trained
Malavath Poorna and Anand who are now the youngest kids to get on to the
everest. He was given the Arjuna award and leaving all that aside he
trained Prabhas for Bahubali. He trained us in rock climbing,
mountaineering, bouldering, rappelling, etc.
MT : What challenges did you have to face during shooting?
Manoj Chandra: We risked our lives for this. We had many near death experiences. Many
of us were hurt while shooting for this film but we dint stop shooting
until we finished the entire project. We had to shoot in snow as
well.That was the toughest part of our shoot. We had no permissions and
we had no safety. In case any accidents would have occurred we wouldn't
even be getting medical attention immediately. There was no
communication medium as well.
MT : Well that's really risky!
Manoj Chandra : During our shoots all of us had nightmares that some of us were falling off the cliffs. The locations were that scary! Well, we felt it was worth the risk. The shots we had got at the end used to let us sleep happily.
MT : Did you have any strict rules to follow, like regarding diet, exercise and all?
Manoj
Chandra : Our mountaineering trainer Shekar Babu sir had given us
specific diet plans and we all had to loose weight for having endurance.
We couldnt stick to the plans while shooting as we hardly had access to
food and water. So everyday was a cheat meal. But yes all of us lost
weights!
MT : Okay... How do you see the efforts of the remaining team?
Manoj
Chandra : Well, more than us the actors, I feel the direction team had
the most difficult job. They had to carry heavy cameras to difficult
locations. They had to shoot while hanging on ropes and all the
equipment is imported. We had no power supply in those areas. So they
had to carry heavy batteries as well. In many situations, we broke a
couple of lenses belonging to our production which costed around 2
lakhs. Still our director didn't give up and beared all the pain and
moved forward
MT : You know Anand Virinchi, your senior and the lyricist, right? How do you think his contribution was to the film?
Manoj
Chandra :Actually having Anand on my team was complete coincidence.
Once I had completed shooting for the film I got to know that Anand was
writing the lyrics of the movie. We were there together back then and
now it's amazing we are working on the same project on our expertise
without even referring each other!
MT : That's
great! Taking up such a challenging project itself is something no one
would ever imagine of! Hats off to all of you!
Manoj Chandra
:Thanks a lot! But honestly, we didn't know we would face these many
challenges in the start. A total of 900 people were auditioned for the
movie out of which 8 were selected. So we felt lucky. We didn't know the
risks we were about to take. In fact, when we signed on the films
contract, it also said that "No one would be responsible if I die while
shooting"!!
MT : Woah! The sight of that clause itself would've been terrifying,wasn't it?
Manoj
Chandra :Yes, it was! But after so much of struggle and after getting
such a powerful role, it was a do or die situation for me. Moreover I
was given soo much of support from my manager! I didn't want to turn him
down.
MT : That's great! So from a TV show host
who interviewed many big stars to soon going to be interviewed as one of
them... How does it feel?
Manoj Chandra : Hahaha! I don't
think I have reached such a level yet! There is a long way to go and the
way is really rough and bad. In the last 4-5 years I have seen the
ugliest side of the film industry. I take films as my passion and would
like to act keeping my job and stayin in my nest safe.
MT : Sure you will! Once the film releases, I'm sure a lot of people
will definitely recognise you as the guy from maa music! Mee Star show I
guess?
Manoj Chandra : I hope so! I still see some of my
collegues coming and asking me if I was a VJ. I'm still shocked how
people remember me! I was just a small VJ who was on tv every sunday!
MT : Really? You're one of the tallest and most handsome VJ people
have ever seen! It's obvious that people remember you! Anyways, Thank
you so much for the interview and all the very best to you and your
team... Hope this project will be a huge success!
Manoj Chandra : OMG! tats a great comment! thnx a lot fr ur wishes! I would like to thanks MLR sir for his support!
And, I would like to wish all my juniors success in their careers and
would advice them to go ahead with their passion without leaving their
profession and career.
MT :Thank you so much for that!
So, that was really a fun interview session! Passion in its true form!!