Trivikram Srinivas’ influence on Telugu cinema needs no introduction. Over the past two decades, the filmmaker has directed and written some of the most popular films in Telugu, and his style of writing has inspired several others to walk on a similar path.

While he is often credited for making the concept of “praasa” quite popular through dialogues, in a recent interview, Trivikram made a surprising confession that he stopped writing praasa with Nuvve Kavali. “I realised that a lot of others were imitating the pattern, so I took a conscious decision to stop writing praasa. Now, I just focus on expressing my thoughts, and I like doing a wordplay because of my love for Telugu poetry,” Trivikram said in the interview.

Interestingly, he also confessed that he doesn’t like his nickname, “Matala Mantrikudu'”, and moreover, he doesn’t understand what people mean when they say “Trivikram Punch.” “I don’t discuss what is the best way to reply to someone to make the dialogue more appealing with punch lines. Like I said, I prefer writing poetry as free verse,” he added.