Telugu Bytes

Praveena Paruchuri, the award-winning producer of Care of Kancharapalem and UMUR, talks to us about her journey into film production, experiences of producing UMUR, COVID-19 and its effects on film production and distribution.

We talk about:

• Her journey from being a doctor in NYC to a Telugu film producer
• Her take on what the job of a producer is
• Challenges faced in film production
• Experiences with UMUR
• Releasing UMUR on Netflix
• COVID-19 and the shift to OTT platforms

This was a very entertaining and informative conversation. Hope you like it! 

Maha, the director of Uma Maheswara Ugra Roopasya joins us (yes!) to do a deep-dive into the making of UMUR.

We talk about:

• The plot points that interested us
• Our questions about the film
• Working with the cast and technicians
• Sound Design and Mixing
• Theatrical experience vs. OTT
• Reviews, Criticism and Memes
• The Genesis of Care of Kancherapalem
• Films that we like

This was an absolutely delightful conversation. Hope you love it!

Dhruv and Aravind review Uma Maheswara Ugra Roopasya, Maha’s second film after the masterpiece Care of Kancherapalem.

• Story
• Changes from Original
• Screenplay and characters
• Performances
• Cinematography, Editing, Production Design
• Sound Design
• Production and Direction

Dhruv and Ravi get together and talk about:

• COVID-19, their initial thoughts
• Rise of cases
• Coming to terms with it
• Changes to lifestyle
• COVID and Telugu Film Industry
• COVID and software industry
• COVID and kids

Dhruv ponders what a “10x engineer” really means, and interviews Chandra Kuchi, a friend of the show and Dhruv’s ex-colleague about 10x engineering aka good software engineering.

They talk about motivation, communicating with the team and other teams, focus and dealing with interrupts, work ethic, communicating your efforts and much more.

You all will be as confused as we are at the end of this episode on what this is supposed to be. But we assure you that it is going to be fun.

Aravind & Ravi dissect Naveen Polishetty's powerhouse performance in his debut Telugu movie -"Agent Sai Srinivas Athreya"

• TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pkux2P7cnA
• Deleted scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On6ZQhjAHmU

As Thanksgiving approaches, Ravi and Dhruv talk about the tech they are thankful for in..... 2018.

In typical Telugu Bytes fashion, we recorded this episode in 2018 but only managed to release it now.

However, we still think it holds up pretty well - we talk about phones, cameras, headphones and a lot more.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Praveen and Dhruv get together and talk about Indian Cricket in 2019 - test dominance, the bowling attack, WC 2019 and more.

• India tour of Australia and NZ
• WC 2019
• Ashes
• Indian Test Team
• Bowling attack
• Dhoni
• Shastri
• Ganguly

• Themes explored in the film
• Screenplay
• Ending
• Characters
• Music and Background Score
• Editing
• Production design
• Direction
• Looking forward

Aravind and Ravi reminisce about their childhood summer vacations

Dhruv and Ravi recap WWDC 2019 and their dashed hopes

• The new glorious monitor and the sticker shock
• Mac Pro - the machine we want, but not we need
• iOS - Dark mode, nuff said
• iPadOS - "Poorthiga macbook la maripoyina iPad ni choodu"
• SwiftUI and its implications on UI frameworks

[The podcast is full of spoilers, please avoid if you haven't watched the movie yet]

• Spidy and Ravi start with how they got introduced to KGF
• Spidy and Ravi discuss their top 4 scenes
  • The first fight
  • Rocky stopping the traffic to aid the poor mother
  • Rocky's brand elevation at police station
  • Rocky pulling the cart
  • Dheera dheera breakout fight
  • Climax
• Prashant Neels direction, script and other tidbits
• Dialogues and how they held their vitality across languages
• Yash - the coming of age of the next pan indian superstar?
• Downsides 
• Predictions about Chapter 2

[Spoiler Alert: Please watch the movie before listening to the episode because we discuss the story and scenes in detail] Aravind & Ravi analyze Nani's latest blockbuster Jersey

• Our 50th episode! 🎉#TB50
• Ram Charan and NTR come together for #RRR with Rajamouli
• Ram Charan & Sukumar's Rangasthalam - our review
  • Performances
  • Suku'mark' scenes
  • Other departments
• NTR & Trivikram's Aravinda Sametha - our review
  • Performances
  • Trivikram finally gets (almost) everything right
  • Other departments
• Looking forward to #RRR and #TB100

Praveen and Dhruv get together to talk about the state of Indian cricket in 2018, review recent tours and player performances and look forward to World Cup 2019.

• Ongoing India-WI series
• End of the road for Vijay and Dhawan?
• The Karun Nair conundrum
• The golden age of Indian fast bowlers
• Why is Ravi Shastri still coach?
• Should Dhoni retire from limited overs?
• Should Rohit Sharma be ODI captain?
• The rise and rise of Virat Kohli
• Praveen's XI for World Cup 2019
• How are the other teams doing?
• Final thoughts

Aravind and Ravi couldn't wait to get their thoughts in about their latest favorite Telugu movie

Note:

1. We think you will be able to enjoy this episode irrespective of if you watched the movie or not. But you still want to be make sure you have all the context, here is the amazon prime link.
2. All the discussion & sarcasm in this episode is in a lighter vein to provide humor for our audience and not meant to undermine the talent of any technicians involved. Thank you!

Dhruv goes over everything that happened in the Apple world since he & Ravi got together in 2017.

•  iOS 12
• WatchOS 5
• Mojave
• iPhone X/Xs/Xr
• HomePod
• New Macs
• Watch Series 4

It took another season of Bigg Boss for Praveen and Ravi to come back from hiding!

After almost an year since they did they a quick recap of Bigg Boss 1, Ravi and Praveen get together to discuss about Bigg Boss 2. 

In this special episode, Dhruv interviews C R Hemanth, a popular Telugu film critic who probably needs no introduction to our listeners. We at Telugu Bytes have always followed and admired Hemanth's reviews and his take on all things filmy.

• Hemanth's days at BITS Pilani and introduction to film appreciation
• The trip that (sort of) changed his life
• Blogging about films
• How he got into mainstream film journalism and criticism
• Social media - pros and cons
• How he deals with trolls
• Films of 2018 - Rangasthalam, Awe, Sammohanam, Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi
• Flops of 2018 - How audience are rejecting the old order
• Reviews and their impact on films
• Relationship between filmmakers and critics
• How do we make film reviewing better
• Purpose of a film critic - Hemanth's POV

Notes:

1. This interview is predominantly in English, kindly understand and excuse. 
2. We thought we were respectful, unbiased and objective in our opinions but in case we offended anyone, we deeply apologize.
3. (Pardon the crutch words - Dhruv)