'Check' - A Telugu movie centers around Chess
The influx of the sports based movies in the Indian movie industry is definitely a reason to rejoice for all sports lovers. However there is a serious dearth in movies based on chess. Sure chess has often been used in a metaphor or some sub-plot but so far it hasn't been the major focal point of live action movie where an actual chess player portrayed a character. Award winning Telugu director Chandra Sekhar Yeleti took a leap of faith and made a movie titled 'Check' where chess is the focal point. Have you watched it yet? Photo: Official Trailer/Bhavya Creations
Srithan Saypuri portrays a child prodigy
The success of the Netflix mini-series The Queen's Gambit brought a lot of mainstream attention to the chess universe. A whole lot of new players took up the game and some people from the entertainment industry also saw the huge potential of this cerebral sport. However famous director Chandra Sekhar Yeleti decided to do a movie with a backdrop of chess before the record breaking The Queen's Gambit aired of Netflix. 15-year-old National under-25 2019 second runner-up Srithan Saypuri portrayed a child prodigy character in the movie.
When we got to know about the movie which centers around chess, we decided to do an interview with Srithan to get a glimpse about how he landed this role, his experience and more.
Shahid Ahmed (SA): Please tell us about the movie 'Chess' and your role.
Srithan Saypuri (SS): "Check" is a movie about a person (actor Nithin) who unfortunately gets jailed as a terrorist. He gets interested in chess, He plays tournaments - Nationals, Commonwealth and then he becomes a grandmaster. The movie is about how he achieves his dream.
SA: How did you get the role in this movie?
SS: The director Chandrasekhar Yeleti is one of the top director of Tollywood. He came up with this concept of chess in a movie and he was doing auditions. As my mother owns a chess academy (Begumpet Chess School) in Hyderabad, they approached my mom for their chess research. Then they saw me there and asked me for audition and gave me a big dialogue, I could deliver it the way director was expecting and I got this role.
SA: How was your experience?
SS: It was really good. I was very happy to work with such talented people. I came to know how tough every field is, every technician works very hard. It was really an awesome experience.
SA: How did playing chess help you in playing the role?
SS: They were looking for a young chess prodigy with chess attitude and emotion to be shown properly on silver screen. When director asked me to do some serious looks and expressions while playing chess I could do it very normally because that is my general way of playing in tournaments.
SA: Were you called about the movie after The Queen's Gambit's success? If yes, do you think The Queen's Gambit's success played a key role in a movie getting made about chess?
SS: In fact this movie shoot started last year in October-November before The Queen's Gambit. It was because of the pandemic the shoot got prolonged and released now.
SA: Apart from you, who else knew about chess from the movie production?
SS: Before the movie started only the director and story writer did lot of research and study on chess. To be frank by the end of the movie end, almost every technician started playing chess in the breaks given between the shoot. They do not know the technicality but just played games.
SA: How was it like enacting chess in a movie?
SS: I really enjoyed being a part of this movie. There are really good dialogues delivered by other artists when I was playing with the hero. Even hero Nithin appreciated chess and chess players saying how smart chess players are. It's tough to be intellectual like them he says. I was happy to hear that.
SA: What are you doing currently in terms of academics?
SS: I am currently studying in eleventh standard in CBSE board in Indus Universal School.
SA: What do you have to say to those who are yet to watch this movie?
SS: Actually to be frank usually I saw so many movies on cricket, boxing, hockey and all but no movie on chess (in Tollywood). When I heard some big director is taking such risk of casting chess as major part of the movie, I was very happy that chess is being promoted on a large scale. Chess is a sport which is widely expanded and less known among general audience. Only those who play chess knows its popularity. So this movie made it more popular among general audience and every chess player should watch it.
SA: How was the response from your family and friends about your role?
SS: It was good. My family, my coach Chaitanya Suresh was very very happy seeing me on such big screen. My mom watched four to five times and every time she gets emotional.
SA: Thank you for taking the time to answer the questions. I wish you the best in your future endeavors.
SS: I am happy when someone told me that I am the first Indian chess player to play an important role with a hero in a big movie.