Software engineer Sriram Adittya, who is making his debut as director with "Bhale Manchi Roju", says the Sudheer Babu-starrer is a crime comedy and its story takes place in just 12 hours.

Sriram Adittya is now busy promoting his debut directorial venture, which is scheduled to release in theatres on 25 December. The debutant director, who earlier worked with Google and Facebook, says the movie is different from the regular potboilers of Tollywood.

In an interview to IANS, the director has said unlike regular Telugu movies, "Bhale Manchi Roju" does not deal with heroism. "This story doesn't require the hero to be all macho. The focus is on the character he plays. This is a story of 12 important characters and I've given all my actors equal screen space," said Sriram Adittya.

"Bhale Manchi Roju" is about a day in the life of Ram, who starts with a plan, but ends up facing different people and situations, which change his life. "It's a story that takes place within a span of 12 hours — from morning to evening. It has shades of crime and comedy. It's a screenplay-based film that'll be very different from the regular crop of films," Sriram Adittya said.

Sudheer Babu essays the role of Ram in "Bhale Manchi Roju", which is produced by Vijay Kumar Reddy and Sashidhar Reddy. The film features an ensemble cast of Dhanya Balakrishna, Saikumar, Posani Krishna Murali, Wamiqa Gabbi, Paruchuri Gopalakrishna, Chaitanya Krishna and Vidyullekha Raman.

Sriram Adittya is happy Sudheer bonded with him very well on the sets of "Bhale Manchi Roju". "I'd imagined Sudheer as a very strict and serious person. Therefore, I assumed it wouldn't be easy to get along with him. However, we hit it off quite well and bonded like brothers. It was much fun working with him," Adittya said.

The debutant director has all praises for Sudheer Babu for his patience throughout the shoot of "Bhale Manchi Roju". "I usually take several takes before locking a shot. One of the scenes with Sudheer actually took us 14 takes, not because he wasn't getting it right but I wanted it to be perfect," said Adittya.

"Bhale Manchi Roju" translates to "What a good day", and Adittya recalls how a bad day turned good on the sets. "We had to shoot a song in the rain. We were ready to start shooting, but were told we couldn't get water tankers. It left us disappointed, and then it poured cats and dogs out of the blue! With the help of cinematographer Shamdat, we managed to shoot in the rain. It came out so well," he said.