Actor Sree Vishnu has always experimented and has made different kind of films. Be it ‘Appatlo Okadundevadu’ or ‘Mental Madhilo’ his films never fail to get the right critical acclaim. Also he doesn’t look like regular commercial hero, his movies usually do not have, highly choreographed action sequences, dances in huge sets, forced punch dialogue comedy. They feel very close real life. So for his new movie which released yesterday ‘Needi Nadhi Okate Katha’ the makers actually went a step ahead and adapted the internationally acclaimed and revolutionary “Dogme 95” technique.

What Is “Dogme 95”:

Dogme 95 is a film making movement started in 1995 by the Danish directors ‘Lars von Trier’ and ‘Thomas Vinterberg’, who created the “Dogme 95 Manifesto”. The manifesto consisted of certain rules to make films based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology. It was an attempt to take back power for the director as artist, as opposed to the studio. The first ever Dogme film ‘Festen’ (A Danish film) was made by Vinterberg, which was critically acclaimed and won the Jury Prize at the “Cannes Film Festival” that year.

How is a film called a “Dogme 95 film”:

According to ‘Dogme 95 Manifesto’ made in the late 90’s, there are a certain set of rules which are supposed to be followed, in order to label our film as a ‘Dogme 95 film’.

10 Golden Rules of Dogme 95:

1. Shooting of the film must be done on real locations. Props (properties) and artificial sets must not be brought in. (if any particular prop has to be used, a location must be chosen such a way where this prop is to be found).

2. No additional sounds must be produced apart from the images. Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot.

3. The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. No tripods, no huge camera, and video setup is allowed.

4. The film must be in colour. (It cannot be black and white). Special lighting is also not acceptable.If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).

5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.

6. The film must not contain superficial action. Murders, weapons, highly choreographed action sequence etc. must not occur.

7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. That is to say that the film takes place here and now.

8. Genre movies are not acceptable.

9. The film format must be Academy 35 mm.

10. The director must not be credited.

Why ‘Dogme 95’:

The main reason why this technique was introduced was to reduce the unnecessary, expensive production cost, spectacular special effects and post production modifications. The budget of the film is the main constraint, it should be as minimal as possible.

In 1995, it was introduced as a director’s rebel, revolution against the huge production houses (who used to take all credit of the film). Then a bunch of Danish directors came forward and proved that great films can be made with minimum budget.

Dogme 95 Now:

As these rules are set in 1995, and seem extremely difficult to follow all of them strictly. A few directors take liberty, like for example, Vinterberg (the man who introduced this technique) confessed that, he has used a covered window during the shooting of one scene in his film (Festen). With this, he both brought a prop onto the set and used “special lighting.”

Similarly, even Sree Vishnu in his recent interview said that, as all these rules are old and are very difficult to follow (especially in a country like India), we tried our best to follow the maximum rules from the manifesto. We were able to follow 8 rules. And we are proud that this is first ever Telugu film to adapt this technique.

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