‘BYBM could be a dream debut for us’

The lead ensemble of Bodhai Yeri Buddhi Maari helmed by debutant director Chandru is one of the most cheerful movie teams one could come across. Their palpable energy is something everyone in the office premises talked about. The hero of the film, cardiologist-actor Dheeraj did some news reading even before we could start with our interview. The actor begins first, “Bodhai Yeri Buddhi Maari (BYBM) is a complete thriller. To be more precise, the film does not promote alcoholism at any point in time of the screenplay. The definition of Bodhai (High) could differ from each person. In the film, he gets high on something and his life changes after.” While Dushara plays Dheeraj’s love interest in the film, model Pradaini Surva plays a journalist.

“The screen time of my character is less when compared to others in the film. However, the presence of my character will be felt throughout the film. Being part of a good movie is what matters the most. The name of my character is Janani and throughout the story, she hates the protagonist Karthik, just like how I hate him for whatever he has been doing for the last few minutes,” she laughs as Dheeraj nods. “Its is a dream-come-true for any debutant to be in cinematographer Balu sir’s frame,” adds Dushara. Pradaini has been rumoured to have been a part of several Tamil films before until this film happened. “It is a huge blessing that Pradaini agreed to join us,” says Dheeraj. Pradaini smiles at him and says, “The producer of the film Sreenidhi Sagar is a good friend of mine. She insisted that I go through the script once. I liked it and agreed to come on board. To play a journalist, I didn’t do any prep as it is more of investigative journalism.”

Talking about Dheeraj’s transition from being a cardiologist to an actor, he says, “It was quite a hectic schedule for me as I had to attend patients and do my duty after shoots as I was shooting during the day. I had to take care of my patients who I operated upon too until they were discharged. So, both were equally important to me. Also, I wanted to be an actor since my childhood and that has come true with BYBM.”

While films with star value have always been the crowd pullers to theatres, BYBM team doesn’t disagree to it. “Yes, even we go for star-studded films when there are four to five releases in a day. But, BYBM will be spoken about by the audience for its content. The word of mouth promotions will do us a world of good,” they said.

Pradaini says that her modelling stint served as a plank to be familiar to people across the city. “To an extent you will know where the cameras are and their angles. However, modelling and cinema are vastly different. Good looks are enough to be a successful model. For cinema, only the performance counts. It doesn’t matter how good you look,” she concludes the chat and clicked selfies with her co-stars before they left the campus.