Siddharth Chokkakula came to Hyderabad from Visakhapatnam with one mission - to be a filmmaker. And with mentors like Sudhakar Boina, who has been an associate director in the Telugu movie industry (including a Nagarjuna movie), we could say that he is at least on the right path. "I meet my mentors whenever I get the chance. They streamline my content and give suggestions for a better script," says the 24-year-old.
It all started at Kalakriti, a fest organised by GITAM University, Vizag, where Siddharth was writing and directing scripts. He then tried his hand at stand-up comedy with the Vizag Comedians, one of the city's most reputed comedy group. "The first two shows went well, but after that, the audience started laughing at me instead of my jokes," confesses Siddharth, sheepishly. He's convinced now that it isn't his cup of tea.
After completing his engineering, Siddharth took a break to travel, hitting Bengaluru, Baroda, Pune and Mumbai, just to "simply explore. If you want to just survive you can live a mundane life, but if you want to truly live and not just survive, then you need to follow your passion," he says. This is when he built his repertoire of stories. Currently, he has about six stories to tell the world, one of which is Bathasari, where two guys travel - one to heal from his unhappy past and the other just because. "I will start with writing but I won't settle with it. My endgame will be directing a movie," he says with conviction.
And though the way seemed uncertain, Siddharth decided to move to Hyderabad, the hub of the Telugu movie industry and is determined to make his mark.