For anyone who doesn’t live in a city where Vanaja was released last year, or who just happened to miss it, the great news is that Emerging Pictures has just released the DVD, with some terrific  additional features.

First, there are four short films (each around 10 minutes in length) that the director, Rajnesh Domalpalli, shot in the summers of 2002 and 2003:   The Fisherman’s Daughter, Firecrackers, Poison in the Well, and Just for Him.   People who have already seen Vanaja will recognize some of the actors, and you can see the director’s first steps towards what his later work would become.

In addition, there are two short introductory pieces, again, each not more than 9 or 10 minutes.   The first is of Domalpalli introducing Vanaja, and, after discussing the making of the film, and how he discovered his lead actor, Mamata Bhukya, he proceeds to discuss and lament the passing of many cultural art forms in Andhra Pradesh.

In the second piece, an off-camera voice interviews Mamata Bhukya in January 2008.  

If anyone read my comments on the film when I saw it last year, it was plain for all to see that I was smitten with this amazing, talented young woman, who went from being a schoolgirl in 8th Standard to actress and dancer, in one year.    

Part of what is so interesting in the interview with Mamata is to see glimpses of her family life, some early clips of her acting – when she still had the short, boyish haircut that almost cost her her big break –  and to consider her now, some five years since the whole life-changing adventure began, and see how she’s shapeshifted from a child into an adolescent, who’s now on the brink of adulthood.

Here’s part of an interview I did with Mamata Bhukya last year.

Stay tuned for an interview with Rajnesh Domalpalli next.