‘Not Just We Take from Hollywood, They Take from Us Too’

The shot of Megastar Chiranjeevi flying on a “Rekkala Gurram” caught everyone’s attention when the teaser of Vishwambhara was released on social media. In an exclusive interview with Gulte, director Vassishta revealed that the Rekkala Gurram sequence was inspired by Akkineni Nageshwara Rao’s 1949 film Keelu Gurram.

Vassishta explained that Keelu Gurram was a multi-layered story even back in those days, which he found inspiring. “Just like how the protagonist in Keelu Gurram travels from one place to another on a Keelu Gurram, in Vishwambhara, our hero journeys on a Rekkala Gurram. People assume that the idea of Pegasus (a flying horse) comes from Hollywood, but it has existed in our culture for ages. We see images of Pegasus in temple sculptures, carvings, and even on palanquins. In our film, the hero also shares a special bond with the Rekkala Gurram,” he said.

Vassishta went on to state that while many believe Indian filmmakers draw inspiration from Hollywood, the opposite has also happened, but we never knew it. “We often talk about getting inspired by Hollywood. But nobody talks about how much they’ve taken from us. Do people know that the Hulk was inspired by Krishna garu’s film Mahabaludu?

Even Haloman was inspired by Krishna garu’s other film (Sabhaash Satyam). They had the budgets to explore such imaginations back then. Now, we started getting big budgets too and we are exploring them in our way. Even the visuals in 2009 release Avatar can be found in the 1998 book Jwala Dweepam,” he stated.

When asked about references for Vishwambhara, Vassishta said that no one truly knows what heaven or hell looks like. He said, “Our perception of them is shaped by someone else’s imagination. I wanted to create something completely new a world never seen before.

There are 14 worlds mentioned in our religious scriptures. The base among them is Satya Lokam. Inspired by Satya Lokam, I created an entirely new world, which is called Vishwambhara,” he added.

Going by Vassishta’s statements, it seems like he built a completely new world with a new imagination in Vishwambhara. His statements are now raising anticipation for the film and its content, and we have to wait for the release to see what Vassishta has in store for us.