MUMBAI, NOV 4: The world's on a string for Mumbai-based ventriloquist Ramdas Padhye as one of his puppets is about to be immortalised as the centre-piece in a full-length Telegu feature film. Marking a triumph in Padhye's illustrious 32-year long career, the film to be produced under the prestigious banner of Dr Dasari Narayan Rao will be dubbed in Oriya, Malayalam and Tamil and remade in Hindi.``It is thrilling to know that my puppets have takers in the south Indian film industry. A sign of the times to come, puppetry is likely to become a key component of the entertainment world,'' exclaims a visibly excited Padhye, who will soon be on his way to Hyderabad for a 10-day shoot.Although the film necessitates one villainous puppet, Padhye has prepared nine replicas of the same figure. ``Mr Villain will be shot from various angles. True to the film tradition of south India, he will be called upon to pull various gimmicks and acrobatics. An element of black magic adds a new dimension to the puppet, so I have prepared clones of the same puppet to fulfill the needs of each frame,'' Padhye reveals.Film director Relangi Narasimha Rao approached him three months ago while Padhye was busy resurrecting 150 year-old puppets of late Vishnudas Bhave, the father of Marathi theatre. Rao wanted to make a typical commercial masala movie, giving full scope to the evil deeds of a villainous puppet. He was impressed by Padhye's work in the Marathi film Zapatlela which featured an evil spirit in the shape of a puppet. Rao wanted to adapt the central idea of the Marathi film in a south Indian set up. However, the Telegu film was to be produced on a larger scale and shot at exotic locations.Unlike his live puppet shows, Padhye's current assignment calls for a different brand of puppeteering. ``My wife Aparna and I will be present in each frame of the movie, though we won't be visible. Earlier experiences in movies like Zapatlela or the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Mahaan show that weaving puppets into a film is very taxing. One has to stand, sit or bury oneself in the ground for hours together. Until the director captures the right expression on the puppet's face and in its mannerisms, the puppeteer has to go through take after take,'' he reveals.As the film deals with the make believe and supernatural, the puppet will have to extraordinarily energetic. ``Although we can deploy camera tricks and computer graphics to create an imaginary world, we have chosen to demonstrate the acrobatics manually, making my job even more strenuous.'' Incidentally, Padhye has introduced a cloth of a different material to lend the puppets' bodies an amazing elasticity. And he does not want to share the secret formula!
