Yesteryears famous personality, the Rebel Star Krishnam Raju, celebrates his birthday today. In this connection he organized a press meet and had a hearty chat with the media personally. The programme started with a jovial note when asked about his age. Krishnam Raju was too quick to answer much to the surprise of everybody that it was his 42nd birthday. Then he smilingly answered the crowd that it was 42nd year of his film career and advised everybody not to question the age of ladies and film artists. He continued, “Without your asking what is my resolution for the birthday let me tell you that I intend to do at least two to three films under my home production Gopikrishna Movies banner. The first one being the film titled ‘Billa’ with Prabhas in the lead role which was launched during Dasara.
Explaining about the project ‘Billa’ he said, “This is a remake of a Tamil film ‘Billa’ with Ajith in lead role. Infact this is the sequel of earlier ‘Billa’ of Rajinikanth which also was taken in Telugu as ‘Yugandhar’ with Late NTR. This has been a good hit in Hindi also as ‘Don’ one by Amitabh Bachchan and the other by Shahrukh Khan. This film has been altered slightly to suit Prabhas image and the present world. Mani Sharma has already completed three songs and the director Mehar Ramesh is very active in bringing out a memorable film with the standards. Cinematography by Sundar Rajan will be the highlight of the film with excellent visuals. In simple words it would give a feel of Hollywood flick”.
When asked about Prabhas role in this film he said, “Prabhas will look in a very different outfit with a kind of anti-hero role. Prabhas has been very co-operative and enthusiastic with even many dare devil stunts being performed on his own. Though I did in the past myself by jumping from a 55 feet height without any dupe, I could not stand to see Prabhas doing much riskier shot than that and had to distance myself on the particular spot”.
About the stretching budgets in Telugu cinema he said, “Please recall my film ‘Thandra Paparayudu’in which I spent 1.5 crores in those days. Now the rates have gone up and hence the production cost also. But still, they are all out of efforts from everybody to restrict the cost within the limits. But many a times the budget is dictated by the subject demands, range and standard of hero and the quality of director. When it comes to Billa you can imagine the budget when major part of the film has to be shot overseas”.
Explaining about his dream project ‘Visala Netralu’ he said, “Yes! That would go on sets very soon. ‘Visala Netralu’ means ‘The Eyes of Lord Shiva’. The story is about when and how the hero’s thirst to see the eyes of the Lord gets fulfilled is the main theme. The hero’s character will have two dimensions like in my earlier film ‘Bhaktha Kannappa’ and the story is a mix of folk and mythology”.
Speaking about his TV serials he said, “Currently two mythological serials – one is ‘Eeswarudu Saneeswarudu’ and the other ‘Vishnu Puranam’ are under production”.
When asked about Maha Kutami he said, “Politics is a big confusion. The leaders and others who were spitting fire over each other become part of major alliance and fight the polls. As far as I’m concerned I stick to the same party and am loyal to it. I will be contesting from Narasapur parliamentary constituency”.
When questioned about Chiranjeevi’s party he said, “Though the party was a bit unpopular in the beginning it has gained enough momentum as days pass by. Infact we both acted in many films and Chiru fondly calls me as Annayya. I too reciprocate with same sentiments. But when it comes to politics there would be opinion differences and it’s quite naturally. You all can understand”.
Thus he concluded the press meet with his trade mark smile.
