Indian filmmaker Paparao Biyyala grew up with an appetite for content that was presented with music. “The concept is not new to India. The Ramayana and the Mahabharat have been [presented] in a musical format. I recall how one song after the other would be rendered by characters with [minimal] dialogues in between,” says the director, also an avid consumer of the musical shows presented on foreign turf. 

On May 12, Biyyala presents the much-anticipated drama, Music School, a tale on the academic pressures that children are forced to endure. Apart from the fact that the Sharman Joshi and Shriya Saran-starrer has been composed by Ilaiyaraaja, the musical is also of interest to cinephiles since it will include three songs from the western classic musical, The Sound of Music. From Biyyala’s bank of scripts, this offering, he was certain, needed to be presented with song and dance.