In Tatipalli, a hamlet in Telangana’s Medak district, a 21-year-old protagonist and his friends are on a hunt for a double-headed snake in a bid to make big money. The adventure comedy-drama is a coming-of-age story narrated in a rural Telangana setting. What has sparked interest in this indie Telugu film titled Double Engine, scheduled to release in theatres on January 5, is that it comes from Rohit Penumatsa and Sasi (aka Camp Sasi), who go by the screen name Rohit & Sasi. Their earlier films, produced by their in-house firm Avanti Cinema and available in the digital space, have been lapped up by cinephiles and their fame is nothing short of an underground phenomenon.
Produced by Siddharth Rallapalli and Vishwadev Rachakonda, who had backed Pareshan, Double Engine is a 110-minute Telugu film in the Telangana dialect. The film borrows its title from the slang used in the crime world, with reference to double-headed snakes.
Double Engine took shape in 2021 as an attempt to follow the journey of Muni, an aspiring actor. Hailing from Tatipalli, Muni would travel to Hyderabad for auditions. In his spare time, he would drive his brother-in-law’s seven-seater auto to make some money. He had cracked the auditions for the web series Kotha Poradu and also worked in Ram Gopal Varma’s (RGV) Aasha Encounter, which was based on the Disha encounter incident.
Rohit and Sasi’s filmography
Rohit and Sasi knew Muni and were intrigued when he told them that he was visiting his village to help his mother, a health worker, conduct door-to-door survey during the pandemic. “We thought there was a story to be told in the style of Iranian cinema, if we could document how people in the village are curious to know about Muni’s experience as an actor who worked with RGV,” recalls Sasi.
Crime in rural Telangana
This sort of a ‘meta’ narrative, touching upon the film industry, is something that Rohit and Sasi have dealt with earlier. On visiting Tatipalli, which has less than 100 houses — stone-wall structures — and seemed like a Western setting, they wondered about the possibility of a rural story with a crime angle. Aware of hunts for double-headed snakes, Sasi thought it would make for an interesting premise. A team member told them about the term ‘double engine’ and they found their title. Rohit and Sasi worked on the screenplay and dialogues, and directed the film.
Double Engine uses some of Muni’s real-life traits of aggression, and skills such as driving the seven-seater auto and riding the bike at high speed. The rest of the cast includes theatre actors and amateurs.
The duo’s method involves outlining a situation or a scene to their actors, giving them bullet points on what to talk about and observing how they improvise. “In two or three days, we get an idea of each one’s strengths and we write the dialogues accordingly,” says Rohit, adding that in this film, the viewer will not be able to spot the dialogues written in the script and the improvisations.
Double Engine will be Rohit and Sasi’s theatrical release, but they have made nearly 25 films. Drawing from that experience, they had planned the minute details before going to shoot with a crew of 17 members. “We shot in guerrilla style for three days in Hyderabad and another nine-and-a-half days at Tatipalli. Our producers were shocked when we wrapped up within a short time and did not waste footage,” laughs Rohit.
Entering Tatipalli to film each day, they recall, felt like stepping into a special set. “The fact that it was a real location lent authenticity to the film.”
Reflection of native culture
One of the aspects that will make this film stand out, they believe, is the true-to-reality depiction of life in rural Telangana with its native dialect. While there has been an increase in films in the Telangana dialect since the bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, there is also the reality that this dialect tends to be lost on some of the audience in Andhra Pradesh. That, the duo say, is inevitable. “We look at it as a documentation of how youngsters in a certain locality in a certain time period speak. When someone watches this film after a decade or two, it will be a reference point for the dialect in the early 2020s,” says Rohit.
Rohit and Sasi’s decade-long collaborator, music composer Vivek Sagar, has worked on Double Engine. “We think this is his best work,” says Rohit. Vivek’s earlier work for Rohit and Sasi’s Sheeshmahal was an experimental album with Telugu, Hindi, Tamil songs and a bhajan. The music for Double Engine has four songs, one of which has Lambadi and Telangana lyrics. “Some of the auto drivers in Hyderabad speak the Lambada language and we wanted this to be reflected in the song,” says Rohit. The background score is also stated to be one of the highlights.
Filming in sync sound, the makers worked with Aditya for sound recording, Teja ASGK for sound design and Ajit Abraham George for sound mixing. “Ajit is the senior-most technician we have worked with. He has more than 700 films to his credit, including Sathya. He is the go-to technical advisor when someone is setting up a new recording studio and needs guidance.”
Double Engine was initially planned as a film for the digital platforms but eventually took the theatrical route. It will have a limited release in Karimnagar, Warangal, Vijayawada, Hyderabad and Bengaluru in India, and the US. In India, the tickets will be priced at a modest ₹112. The duo hopes that the film will grow in popularity through word-of-mouth publicity.
Talking about the film’s ‘A’ certificate, owing to profanities in the dialogues, Sasi explains that none of it was for shock value but rather a reflection of how the rural youngsters speak. “We were relieved when the CBFC gave us an ‘A’ certificate and did not want us to beep or cut anything. The realisation that the CBFC is a certification board, rather than a censor board, gave us confidence.”
Coming up
Post Double Engine, Rohit and Sasi hope that Sheeshmahal, which came close to a theatrical release more than a year ago, will finally see the light of the day. Private screenings of the film drew full houses and the music album has a steady following.
Their forthcoming line up includes another indie film titled Gopi Galla Goa Trip (the title was phonetically inspired by Satyajit Ray’s Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne), for which they took additional care to avoid any profanity.
At the moment, their attention is on seeing how the audience receives Double Engine. As a parting shot, they mention that over 100 posters of the film designed by fans, available on social media platforms. This serves as an indication of the popularity they enjoy in the indie space.
