‘Ammu’ & Alia Bhatt’s ‘Darlings’ Are Unique Despite Their Similarities: Charu

The Quint caught up with the cast and crew of Ammu, Amazon Prime Video's first Telugu original. During our conversation director Charukesh Sekar, Creative Producer and filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj, and the lead actors Aishwarya Lekshmi and Naveen Chandra opened up about the film, why it is an important story, how it is unique from Alia Bhatt's Darlings despite the similar theme of domestic abuse and more.

Speaking about her take on the film, Aishwarya Lekshmi shared that she is “proud of Ammu". On working in female-driven stories directed by male filmmakers like Sai Pallavi starrer Gargi, Malayalam film Archana 31 Not Out, and Ammu, Aishwarya said that she doesn't look at them as male directors. She would like to call them 'Feminists'.

Naveen Chandra, who has worked as a villain in most of his films, when asked about his character in Charukesh's directorial, shared, “My role in Ammu is very different from rest of the negative shades that I have played. This role is what I wanted in my film career”.

Complementing Naveen Chandra for his exceptional acting skills, Aishwarya said, “We had a huge competition with each other to ensure we make the scenes better”.

Alia Bhatt's 'Darlings' and Aishwarya Lekshmi's 'Ammu' are unique despite their similarities.

Director Charukesh Sekar, added.

Ammu's team also opened up about the best lessons they learned working with the industry's best, prior to working on this project.

“Impressing Mani Ratnam was my goal in PS-1 sets”, said Aishwarya Lekshmi who featured as Poonguzhali in Ponniyin Selvan: Part One. While Naveen Chandra said, "I learnt a lot working with Jr NTR and Ram Charan. The way they approach filmmaking and how they stay connected with their fans amazes me”.

Karthik Subbaraj shared that directing top Tamil stars like Rajinikanth in Petta, Dhanush in Jagame Thanthiram, and Vikram in Mahaan, helped him become a more responsible filmmaker. Charukesh Sekar, the director of Ammu who assisted Karthik during Petta says he was awestruck looking at the dedication of the actor-director duo.

The team also got candid and played a fun 'Who is most likely to...?' game.

Watch the videos to know more.