Ram Pothineni wraps second schedule of RAPO23, his debut as writer-director

Ram Pothineni has stepped behind the camera for the first time, and the project is moving fast. The film, carrying the working tag RAPO23, marks his debut as both writer and director, and he is playing the lead role in it as well. The team has now wrapped the second schedule of the shoot.

RAPO23 is being built as a neo-noir psychological action thriller. That genre choice is visible in the way the team has approached the filming, with the look of each setting planned to carry the mood the script asks for rather than being lit for convenience.

The biggest piece of the completed schedule was a night action sequence staged over a stretch running a full kilometre. Hundreds of lights were used to illuminate the entire location, turning the whole area into a single atmospheric canvas. An aerial view of the setup, shared in a behind the scenes video, shows just how much planning went into holding a block of that size together.

Kevin Master has choreographed the action for the sequence. The set work and the stunt portions are both expected to feed directly into how the film presents itself on screen, so this schedule may end up carrying a fair share of the finished film's visual identity.

Samyuktha plays the female lead opposite Ram. Krishna Pothineni is producing the film under the Rapo Cinematics banner, and the technical team is a strong one. Sam CS is composing the music, while Thirunavukarasu, known as Tirru, is handling the cinematography.

With two schedules done and a distinct visual approach already taking shape, RAPO23 is shaping up as one of the more curious projects in the making. A star turning director on his own script is always a gamble, and Ram appears to be swinging for something far from the routine.