Budget was never a concern with Sithara Entertainments, they always want good content
Star Boy Siddhu Jonnalagadda’s upcoming film Tillu Square is scheduled to hit theatres on March 29th, 2024, worldwide. Directed by Mallik Ram, the film stars multi-faceted Siddhu Jonnalagadda as the iconic character Tillu. Siddu also wrote the screenplay and dialogue for the film, which is produced by Suryadevara Naga Vamsi under Sithara Entertainments. Tillu Square is presented by Srikara Studios.
Meanwhile, director Mallikarjun Ram, aka Mallik Ram, interacted with the media today.
* This is my first theatrical movie. I did the Pelligola web series, which was a big hit; later, I did Adbhutham. Siddhu and I thought of doing a film together three years ago, but it didn’t work out. We were discussing another project to do together; in the meantime, DJ Tillu released it, and the producer was discussing Tillu Sqaure. Since Vimal committed to another project, Siddhu asked me about this, and first we wanted to develop the story. When the story came out well, we became confident about Tillu Sqaure. It started off as a fun project but became one of the biggest projects in both of our careers.
* We wrote this story for almost 600 days. We tried to do as much justice as we could for Tillu Square because DJ Tillu was a cult hit. For me, it is a very unique film, and to recreate it was an extremely difficult task for me and Siddhu. We wanted to make it bigger. We packed Tillu Sqaure well, with a few people from the first part appearing in the second season. If you watch in theatres, you will realise the efforts we put into the film. The story will be closed in this part. This is an open-and-ended story. We do have plans for Part 3, but we haven’t really thought of them. We are waiting for the release of Tillu Square first.
* The Radhika emotion will be in this installment too. A problem entering Tillu’s life is the theme of the film. What problem is Radhika creating, and how is he solving it? All the mistakes he made in Part 1 will haunt him in Part 2 throughout the film. There is a massive difference when it comes to the story. In fact, the genre is completely different. DJ Tillu was a black comedy drama; Tillu Square is not a black comedy. It is a very universal, simple, and commercial film. Boldness is the nature of this film. That is Tillu’s expression of romance. All their conversations will be on edge. There will be some glimpses of Neha from DJ Tillu.
* After the interval, the first 30 minutes are always a problem because if that doesn’t work out, the movie drops. So we wrote a track for that and shot for 15–16 days, but somehow we didn’t like it. That’s why we decided not to release the film, write a new track, and shoot again. If you don’t compare this film with DJ Tillu and watch it as Tillu Sqaure, this film is very entertaining and a good film for the market and the audience to watch in the theatre.
* The reason to choose Anupama is because she is an extremely talented actress, and the role of Lilly is extremely difficult to play. When we were looking for a heroine, many people walked in, including Medona Sebastian and Meenakshi Chowdary. A lot of people walked in, and all the time we were testing. At that time, Anupama too came, and she left because of dates, but she happened to come on board again. She was the right actress for this role. There are talks that I saw her in Rowdy Boy and cast her, which is not true. I saw her previous movies with Ram and others, and I liked the way she looked and acted. She is very quick and extremely quick. That is why we took her, and she pulled it off that way.
* I am the kind of person who likes to work in collaborative settings. Even for Adbhutham, I took the story from Prashant Verma. I am very happy that Siddhu is getting his due credit for their involvement in the story-writing process. Prashant, Teja, Siddhu, and I came from a very struggling phase, and now we are all collaborating, and I am very happy about it, and we are all getting credit. There is nothing called influence on sets. Siddhu and I both discuss scenes together, and we create a scene that sounds better for us both. Because Tillu is a character-driven film, Since Siddhu is already writing the story, his involvement is obvious in the filmmaking. So I don’t feel any inferiority complex here. We made the film together in a collaborative process and did not feel insecure about the credits others may get.
* From the very beginning of the film, we decided to repeat the same team. We wanted Thaman to give the background score, just like in Part 1. Ram gave us three songs. We tried a song with Sricharan Pakala; the song came out well, but because of a small change, we went to another music director for Oh My Lilly. Thaman was not available for this movie; he was busy with other projects, so we went ahead with Bheems. He did three reels, and it came out brilliantly.
* Working with Sithara Entertainments, we never discussed budget; we only discussed quality. Vamsi Anna always tells us to focus on the story and not worry about the budget. It is a very good production to make all kinds of films. Trivikram Garu has been of enormous help to us. He watched the film and gave some suggestions. When we re-shot the scenes after the interval, it was upon Trivikram Garu’s suggestion only.
* In real life, I had a Radhika and a Lilly in my life. It was only after Lilly and Radhika left my life that the right person landed in my life. So I am very glad about it. My wife did the costumes for this film, and we gave Anupama some time to get into the shoes of Lilly. We began shooting after she became comfortable with all the clothing that Lilly wears, how she behaves, etc.
* On the work front, I signed a pan-India film with AK Entertainment.
