25 June 2015
Hyderabad
Srinivas Raga - an engineer by profession likes making thrillers. After Katha and Okkadine, he is directing and producing another thriller Where is Vidya Balan? WIVB is releasing on 26 June. Here are the excerpts of an exclusive interview -
Background
I am a civil engineer who worked in Bangalore as site engineer for Bangalore National Games Village. I had been movie lover since childhood and it was my goal to become a film director. The passion for films made me resign my job and come to Telugu film industry. I have joined Kodi Rama Krishna in direction department and worked for films Navvuthu Bratakali and Trinethram. Then I came out started preparing scripts. It took a while and I got my first break in 2009.
I knew Chandra Sekhar Yeleti and he has informed that Gangaraju Gunnam was looking for good stories. I met Urmila (wife of Gangaraju) and explained her Katha concept. She liked it and then I narrated it to Gangaraju Gunnam. He has asked for the script, but I just had the concept with me. I took around 3 months to prepare a bound script with inputs from Gangaraju. It was Krishna Vamsi who suggested us that we need a known actress in order to pull crowds and recommended us Genelia who has worked with him for Sasirekha Parinayam. She gave us dates though she got busy in Bollywood with the success of Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. Though Katha (2009) was a good concept, we receive flak for lack of commercial elements and for the slow paced narration. I did another film film titled Okkadine with Nara Rohith and Nitya Menen in 2013.
Where is Vidya Balan (WIVB)
I wanted to produce this movie on my own, but had no money. Suddenly, I met my childhood NRI friend. After knowing my intentions, he came forward to fund my movie. We shot the entire movie in 36 days in a budget of 2 crores. The runtime is approximately 2 hours. It has obtained A certificate.
Tell us about the concept of WIVB?
It’s a comedy thriller. It works when we cast new faces. Prince is such a hero who has no image, but performs well. We wanted to cast a Telugu girl as heroine and found nobody. Hence I cast Jyothi Seth, a model who has done a few Punjabi music videos. We wanted cast MS Narayana for a comic don character, but his health was unstable. Hence we cast Sampoornesh Babu in that character. Madhunandan, Asish Vidyardhi, Rao Ramesh, Saptagiri and Jaya Prakash Reddy did other important roles.
What is your gut feel about the movie?
The content and entertainment in the movie will attract movie lovers. Screenplay in second half makes it very gripping.
What are your future films?
It will depend on the result of Where is Vidya Balan!
