‘Gorre Puranam’ is my take on the herd mentality, says debutant director Bobby

In a tête-à-tête with South First, the director talks about his brief work experience in ad filmmaking but doesn’t miss out on the happenings in the cinema field.

Filmmaking and Gorre Puranam

On the sets of ‘Gorre Puranam’. (Supplied)

“I enjoyed the stint in advertising and working in the creative space in the corporate world. But if you’ve begun your career with cinema, you’ll have to come back to it someday,” he said.

“One day, I was excited by a small plot narrated by my colleague. It is about a sheep wanting to come out of its boundaries to try its fortune elsewhere,” Bobby recollected.

He immediately started writing the story. Within a couple of weeks, the script was ready. Thanks to his director-friend Prashanth Mandava’s encouragement, Bobby decided to direct the film.

Suhas of Family Drama (2021) and Color Photo (2020) is the supporting hero in the flick.

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Making the sheep act

Actor Suhas on the sets. (Gorre Puranam/ Facebook)

While the limitation of the budget was a big challenge, the bigger ordeal was to make the sheep act, or do we say manage it.

Bobby recalled the process. “It (sheep) won’t do as we say. So, all we did was hold its weaknesses. We got a dog trainer for it, but it didn’t work. We trained it for three months and had another sheep to be on the safer side.”

He further added, “One was struck with a disease before the shoot and spread the illness to the other one. We were advised to bring a sheep from Andhra Pradesh because it is said to have a higher IQ quotient because of the land it grazes on.”

“We brought down both the sheep and its owner and fed the former with sweets, biscuits, etc. It was the smartest sheep and could catch whatever we taught. Usually artists ask doubts, this didn’t,” he said with a smirk.

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Sheep and the trainer

Director Bobby with the sheep on the sets. (Supplied)

The remuneration was ₹15,000 per month and the trainer made the work easier for the team. Whenever a schedule was wrapped, the sheep was sent back in a car to Tuni from where it hailed.

The actual panic began when the next schedule began and the trainer stopped taking calls.

He refused to come as he was working for a political party and offered to send his nephew instead to handle the sheep.

“The nephew showed more interest in film and filmmaking rather than focussing on the sheep. The sheep became dull, it was missing the original trainer and suffered from diarrhoea, especially when Suhas had date problems,” Bobby amusingly recollected.

The director further added, “One day, while the sheep was alighting the car, the driver didn’t expect the animal to get down recklessly and banged the door which hit the sheep’s leg. As there was inflammation on its leg, the sheep was limping and couldn’t participate in the chase scenes. So, I altered the script a bit and wrote that the sheep gets hurt.”

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‘Trainer was like a mother hen’

‘Gorre Puranam’ is a story about a sheep.(Supplied)

The sheep’s trainer apparently was like a heroine’s mother, always fussing over it like a mother hen.

He wouldn’t let anyone go near the sheep or handle it roughly. The unit flew him down with some herbs when the sheep fell sick.

Once they both met, the sheep was completely alright within a couple of hours to face the camera.

The first half of Gorre Puranam is entirely about the sheep till Suhas steps in. The script has an impact as well as space.

There are many characters in the film and the fictional villages have hilarious names.

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All about Gorre Puranam

Poster of ‘Gorre Puranam’. (Gorre Puranam/ Facebook)

Bobby encapsulates the film as a journey of the sheep named Ram. It begins with Ram whose quality is never raising its head and is always grazing.

When he lifts his head one day, he sees a beautiful village on the other side filled with glistening green grass and a herd of sheep. The grass on the other side is always green and so, it convinces his friend Lakshman to run away with him. What happens later forms the crux.

The voiceover for Gorre Puranam is given by a popular actor-director.

Bobby wraps up the conversation but not before revealing an important scene that led him to make the poster of Gorre Puranam.

“I saw an injured bear being carried to a hospital from an ambulance and a TV9 reporter thrusting the mike towards the bear. You can see it on YouTube.”

Well, that sums up the director’s thought process of the media too!