Patnaik's film is set for a Halloween release

He���������s perhaps this year���������s biggest newsmaker in Tollywood, yet, R P Patnaik is his unassuming old self.
While his counterparts in Bollywood make national headlines for mere ���������meetings��������� with foreign actors, RP has quietly gone ahead and almost completed his first Hollywood film and is now gearing up for its release! Titled ���������Amy���������, this full-length supernatural thriller, based on the intriguing Amish community, was shot in Pennsy-lvania with an international cast and crew.
RP, who revolutionized Telugu film music with popular hits like ���������Gajuwaka Pilla��������� and ���������Ranu Ranu Antoone Chinnadi���������, composed music for over 60 films in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada, apart from dabbling in acting and direction. But Hollywood was not something he thought of even in his wildest dreams, he admits. Then how did it all happen?
���������In 2008, a friend and I were discussing film stories in Delhi, when a story idea suddenly struck me. I narrated it to him and he liked it very much. I���������d been wanting to do something different from the masala movies of Tollywood. But I knew that such films wouldn���������t have takers in India. That���������s when I made Hollywood my goal. If I spoke about this back then, people would have laughed it off and said I���������d gone mad!���������
So he kept the idea under wraps and worked on multiple scripts that would land him in Hollywood some day. ���������Once the first script was ready, I narrated the story to Sony Pictures. They liked it and wanted to buy it, but I wanted to direct the film myself. Naturally, there was nobody who wanted to risk their money on me!���������
Undeterred, RP decided to prove himself first and began his hunt for a new subject. ���������It was my friend Balasekharan in the US who told me about the Amish community and their beliefs. This subject piqued my curioisty, so I went to Ohio in 2009 to research on it. My friend and producer Prasad Kunisetty helped me out and after the bound script was ready, I sent it to C J Martin in Mumbai, who modified it to suit Hollywood,��������� reveals RP.
With the script in place, it was time to hunt for actors. ���������We needed to find people to suit the story. For the title character Amy, we chose Jessica di Giovanni and for the supporting character of the exorcist we roped in Christopher Atkins of ���������The Blue Lagoon��������� fame,��������� reveals RP, who completed the shooting of ���������Amy��������� in just 28 days! The soundtrack was recorded in Prague.
���������Since supernatural films are released during Halloween, we are aiming at an October-end
release this year,��������� he says.
Even the process of blocking theatres is going to be a Herculean task he says. ���������Releasing a film is not an easy task. I am not a known name in Hollywood. So, first I need to screen my film to potential buyers and distributors and at film festivals, if people like my film then will block theatres. It���������s a big process, but I am confident,��������� RP sign off.