Why 16 songs In Manamey, Sriram Adittya Answers

Director Sriram Adittya, best known as the director of crime-comedies Bhale Manchi Roju, Shamanthakamani, Devadas and Hero, is gearing up for the release of his upcoming film Manamey.

The film stars Sharwanand and Krithi Shetty in the lead roles and revolves around two radically different individuals tasked with the job of raising a toddler in London.

In an exclusive chat with Gulte.com, Sriram Adittya explains why he decided to make a relationship drama, after directing crime dramas till now. “I have always been a fan of these feel-good, family entertainers. Seetharamaiah Gari Manavaralu (1991) and Manmadhudu (2002), for example, are some of my favourite films. It has always been a desire of mine to make such a film myself. That is why I made Manamey.”

Manamey has music composed by Hesham Abdul Wahab and the film’s original soundtrack has 16 songs. When asked about the decision to lean so heavily into music for Manamey, Sriram explains, “People find it risky to have so many songs in a film because traditionally, songs are brought in slow the pace of the film. For us, it is the opposite. We have carefully used songs to either increase the pace of the songs or compliment some elevation scenes. And not every song in the film is the traditional five-minute-long, pallavi charanam song. Some songs are shorter.”

Manamey is all the more special to its director because the film features his son Master Vikram in the central role. Speaking about his son, Sriram says, “He was two-and-half years old when we started working on the film. He is a year older now. There weren’t much continuity issues with him, but this one time we shot after months, and you can probably make out there that he looks a little older. He wasn’t aware per se that he was working in a film, but he did have a lot of fun on the sets.”