A WhatsApp forward from Salem led to ‘Baby’: Writer-director Sai Rajesh Neelam

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By Prakash Pecheti

19/07/2023

Starring Anand Deverakonda, Vaishnavi Chaitanya, and Viraj Ashwin in the lead, Director Sai Rajesh Neelam’s Baby, the coming-of-age love story is raking in the moolah at the box office.

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Sai Rajesh revealed, “The pics of two boys and a girl, supposedly their girlfriend from Salem went viral on WhatsApp in 2015. An attack resulted in the death of the girl which shook social media.”

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While pondering over this he weaved a story in his mind. “I knew that murdering the girl would send the wrong message to society. So, I changed the climax,” the director explained.

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Sai Rajesh Neelam tried and tested several female artists in the industry for the role of Vaishnavi. “As many as 15 female artists backed out from it.” He shared.

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When producer SKN (Sreenivas Kumar N) asked him to approach medium-scale heroes in the industry, the writer-director wanted to go for a big hero but he got rejected.

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He felt that he has to break the adverse judgement that formed among the industry circles because of his previous film Hrudaya Kaleyam (2014). And, Baby helped him break it.

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“Director Sukumar called me to praise my work saying that Baby would influence him a lot.” the writer-director was all smiles.

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Sai Rajesh defines Neelam Baby as a zero-risk film. “Since I’ve produced three films earlier, I know where to minimise the cost. My producer was tension-free in these aspects,” he chuckled.

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