Ameer Log Director Ramana Reddy Soma Promises a Complete Family Entertainer

Ameer Log is an upcoming Telugu film produced by Madhavi Reddy Soma under the Awwal Number Productions banner. The film is directed by Ramana Reddy Soma, while Manohar Reddy Manchuri is the co-producer. MC Hari, Manoj and Sasidhar play the lead roles, with Vedha Jalandhar, Ravan Nittooru, Vishwender Reddy and Saiyogi in important roles.

Rana Daggubati’s Spirit Media is bringing the film to Telugu audiences on August 21. Ahead of the release, director Ramana Reddy Soma spoke to the media and shared several interesting details about the film, his filmmaking journey and the making of Ameer Log.

Ramana Reddy Soma said that he is from Raghavapuram in Nalgonda district. He moved to Hyderabad in 1997 for higher studies and studied Architecture at JNTU. He has been working in the architecture field for nearly two decades and started his own office in 2007.

However, films were always close to his heart. During the COVID period, he returned to his hometown and spent more time watching movies on OTT platforms. His interest in storytelling slowly pushed him towards filmmaking.

"I have always loved reading and writing stories. I started writing stories around six or seven years ago. I used my own experiences and the things I observed around me while writing. Later, I learnt how to write stories for cinema with the help of a friend. I also learnt several things through YouTube. With the support of some friends, I eventually got an opportunity to visit a shooting set. That is how my journey into cinema started," he said.

The director revealed that he first made a short film around three years ago. He wrote it at night and shot it the next morning. After seeing the final output, he decided to improve his filmmaking skills and prepare a proper bound script before making another film.

"The first short film gave me confidence, but I also understood where I needed to improve. I decided that my next film should be made only after preparing a complete script. I heard Manoj Bajpayee mention the phrase ‘Ameer Log’ during a podcast. That phrase stayed with me, and slowly the idea for this film started developing," Ramana Reddy Soma explained.

He then built a story around three youngsters living in a Hyderabad basti. His aim was to show the area in a realistic and interesting way. The script was completed about two years ago after several discussions and suggestions.

The director chose sync sound to keep the film natural. He felt that dubbing was not giving him the same emotion that he experienced during the actual shoot.

"The artistes performed very naturally. We tried dubbing, but after dubbing I could not feel the same emotion that I felt on the sets. The sound did not feel right to me. So, I decided to use sync sound. A film like this needs to look and sound natural. We also wanted to shoot in a real basti instead of creating sets. Sync sound helped us maintain that realistic feel," he said.

The team spent around 43 days on the entire shoot, including the demo. Nearly 38 days were spent shooting inside the basti. Night shoots were also conducted, which sometimes caused inconvenience to the local residents.

The team showed Ameer Log to the Spirit Media team and received encouraging feedback. The director said Rana Daggubati and his team have supported the movie strongly.

"We showed the film to the Spirit Media team. They liked the first half. The response they received for the second half also made them very happy. The support from Rana and his team has been very valuable to us. Rana also shared a post about our film, and he will watch the movie soon," he said.

Ramana Reddy Soma explained that the language in Ameer Log reflects the way people naturally speak in Hyderabad. Telugu and Urdu words are mixed with the local accent.

"The language should not feel like a barrier. The audience will understand the emotions in every scene. The film is made in a way that people from different sections can connect with it," he said.

The film also features 10 songs. Music director Smaran suggested songs based on the scenes after watching the movie. Lyricists Manoj and Nikhilesh worked on the lyrics, while a song sung by MM Keeravani is expected to be one of the memorable musical highlights.

The director said that he has already shown the movie to several actors and directors. Director V. N. Aditya appreciated the writing and compared the film with movies such as Amitabh Bachchan's Jhund and Ranveer Singh's Gully Boy.

The censor process was also completed with only a few dialogues requiring mutes.

"Every character in the film has an important role. The story is shown through different characters and their perspectives. I gave the artistes freedom to perform, and they also improvised some dialogues on the sets. Finally, Ameer Log is a complete family entertainer," Ramana Reddy Soma concluded.