IANS Exclusive Interview with Niharika Konidela for her film 'Committee Kurrollu' | IFFI 2025

Goa: In an exclusive interview with producer Niharika Konidela, where she discussed her film 'Committee Kurrollu', which is a rural drama set in Andhra Pradesh, exploring friendship, caste, religion, and nostalgia. The film's conflict revolved around childhood friendships tested by societal pressures like caste-based selections in competitive exams. After that, she valued friendship deeply, treasured non-judgmental relationships, and channeled family pressure into motivation. She emphasized discipline in filmmaking. Returning to IFFI Goa and her film's selection in the Best Debut Director section brings validation.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, thank you so much.

00:09Kamiti Kurolo is a rural drama that happens in a village in Andhra Pradesh.

00:17It's a film that deals with a lot of themes actually.

00:20It deals with friendship, it deals with caste, it deals with like religion, festivals.

00:27It deals with a lot of themes.

00:30But if you ask me as a producer, I think the heart of Kamiti Kurolo is the friendship

00:36and the nostalgia that everyone is relating to.

00:40What specific incident comes from the simple disagreement?

00:44Yeah.

00:45Will any friends move to a Kamiti Kurolo?

00:49So I think the first more biggest conflict that happens in the film is when we're normally

00:55in the teenage and you know, like in our childhood, we don't really pay much attention to certain

01:02things that happen in our community.

01:04For example, the caste and the religion, all of these don't really come into account when

01:09we make friends with someone.

01:11But at the age of 18, when you have these competitive exams, you know, the selection of it is based

01:19sometimes on your caste and, you know, from where you hail.

01:25That is, I think, the biggest conflict in our film.

01:28When the main leads, when the characters are so immature, they're so ignorant about this fact

01:37that really transforms the course of their life for the next couple of years.

01:45Yeah, that's what it is.

01:46And later, how when they actually get the maturity, they realize that friendship is more important

01:52than everything.

01:53And it's not in this movie, we don't try to give you any message or we don't tell you how to live

01:59your life or how to change the system or anything.

02:02But just to, how do we co-live with all of these and still love the people that we do

02:09just for who they are?

02:10There's something about a very long friendship of what exactly friendship needs to be.

02:17And especially when you come from the family, how exactly the pressure is there that you have to

02:26to develop a certain discomfort, a certain pressure, how do you also that you have to maintain these

02:32family things?

02:35Okay, first I'll answer the first part of your question, which is what friendship means to me.

02:42I think friendship is everything, you know, there's friendship in everything.

02:46Like I, I know my dad is my dad, but he's also a great friend.

02:50So I see a friend in him, I see a friend in my brother and my mom, but apart from all of these,

02:56I think I've had one of the greatest friendships in my life where people, my friends are purely

03:04non-judgmental.

03:05They see me for who I am as just Niharika who studied with them or who worked with them.

03:10They don't see who or what is behind me.

03:13And also when they give feedback, they're very, very straightforward.

03:17They don't beat around the bush.

03:18They don't sugarcoat anything.

03:20And I think those friendships are something that you really should close,

03:25hold close to your heart.

03:27And that's what I do in coming to the expectations that I have to keep up.

03:37I do feel it.

03:38I do know that I hail from a family of very, very renowned actors as such my uncles.

03:47Um, but I do take it as a fire in my belly where, um, every day, whenever I, you know,

03:54go onto the set or try to select a film for us to produce, it's in back of my head that I need to

04:00make them proud.

04:00It's never, um, too stressful for me because the audience that really, um, the fans,

04:07especially my, uh, fans of my brothers or my uncles, they're so ardent.

04:13And, uh, I think it's a big boon that, you know, even before making my first film as

04:18a producer or as an actor, I felt like I already had a family, like an extended family.

04:24So I am very grateful for all of them.

04:34Yes, of course I did, which is, um, just be very disciplined.

04:39I think discipline is a very, uh, key, uh, advice that I got from almost everyone in

04:47my family because, um, no matter how good of a script that you select and no matter how

04:54many good people or talented people that you associate with, if discipline is missing in

04:59your, um, location, in your, um, story or in the way that we work, I think a lot of things will go

05:06haywire. And, uh, that is one thing that I always keep under control that, you know,

05:10everyone's disciplined, everyone's working with honesty.

05:13Um, I said this again, but I said this before, but I want to say it again, that, uh, I've actually

05:35come to IFI 14 years back as a mass communication student. Um, and that's the first time I came to

05:41Goa. I actually haven't heard about something called IFI 14 years back because I was really young.

05:47That time I was very curious and I was like very, like a wide-eyed, wide-eyed girl, teenager,

05:55who was really excited to see all these different people and film professionals that came to IFI.

06:02But throughout the years, when I started my journey in the film industry, I realized what a big,

06:06uh, and, uh, um, like an amazing platform this is and what a prestigious platform this is for any

06:16filmmaker to have their film screen, because this is not any other people that are watching your film.

06:21There are film professionals. There are people who've directed and produced and written great scripts

06:28all over, um, the world. So for me to under, for me to see that my film, my first ever film as a

06:36producer has been selected, not just screen, but in the competitive section for the best debut director

06:42that my director got selected. Um, I must say it does give me a lot of validation and, um, a greater push

06:49as a filmmaker. Um, I think, I think the, the reason why I get to so confidently move ahead,

07:11move forward with any decision that I make is because I know these people are there behind me.

07:16And that gives me like a huge amount of strength that, you know, no matter what, that they're always

07:22there for me. And, um, they don't always make me sit down and tell me some life lessons that I have

07:28to note down. Uh, for me, it's just, um, very, some things are very unsaid, you know, like, um, you can

07:36just see the way that they live and you can take a lot of things. I think that's the relationship I have

07:40with my, um, uncle Pavankalyangaru and, uh, Charan.

07:44Okay. Uh, last week after South Sinemagara, uh, you worked in South China, uh, you worked in

07:50the right hand, uh, you worked in the right hand, uh, that was Reshni Gandhi and the Balakishnagaru.

07:57Uh, yeah, Agarjunagaru, is it?

08:00Uh, Balakishnagaru got, uh, felicitated on the first, yeah.

08:03Yeah. And, uh, uh, Reshni Gandhi is also a real competition.

08:08Yes. How important are you as a family?

08:14Of course, I think I grew up with, uh, Rajni sir's films, um, it's great. Actually,

08:20as much as everyone, I'm also really looking forward to seeing him, um, get the honor that,

08:26you know, he deserves. Thank you.

IANS Exclusive Interview with Niharika Konidela for her film 'Committee Kurrollu' | IFFI 2025 | Best Debut Director

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