Travelling through the Himalayas

``I have always wanted to be an actor,” says Akash Petla, son of Tollywood director and producer Puri Jagannath, who is playing the lead character in the movie, The Lotus Pond, which has been shortlisted for the International Children’s Film festival.He adds, “My dad is a great director and an inspiration.And I definitely want to pursue acting.” It is Akash’s fourth Tollywood movie and the first as a protagonist.On his experience and role through course of the movie, Akash says, “The experience was amazing.The trek through Himalayas, the nature and everything, it was just wondeful.I loved every bit of it.” He further adds, “It was my first time in the Himalayas and it was freezing cold.” He says his father has been very supportive.“He just told me to go ahead with the script and perform it to my best.He advices me on a lot of things and we talk regularly about films and scripts.” The Lotus Pond is about two kids and their quest for the mythical lotus pond.They set for a journey in the Himalayas during one of their classes at school, thinking they would return back.But, who knew that they had to travel 14,000 ft in the terrain.Along the way, the mountain and its people help these boys finally to reach the pond.They do reach the pond, but they don’t find the lotus there, as it is what they learnt on their way which forms the core of this film.The Lotus Pond is produced by Nitin Kumar Allagadda and directed by Vinda Pg.The producer of the movie Nitin said the locations of the movie will be the much spoken about in the movie.“The place where we shot the movie was Patlipul, from which we had to trek for four days to reach the pond.All the places in the movie are completely virgin and unexplored.” He adds, “Shooting a few sequences in the movie and setting the cameras was a little difficult with the terrain.We took over 40 days to shoot the movie and were camping there till the whole shooting concluded.” With children being in the movie, Nitin says things get even more easier.He says, “We had really cooperative kids and they always listen to you.” The producer says he choose the script as there have not been many children’s films coming up in the city and are working on coming up with one production every year.

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