Homam is debut production film for Kiran Kumar Koneru after a moderate response of Homam, he ventured into Siddam and poured all his heart to bring out a best flick which is due to hit theaters tomorrow, the 12th February. As he was busy with Siddam, like any other producer he was eying on next project and zeroed in on the Hindi success ‘A Wednesday’. This process ran into trouble with the seller dragging cold feet after receiving cheques. Kiran Kumar found sometime to chat with the media and here are the excerpts:
Are you nervous about Siddam hitting theaters?
No, not at all! It is a film with a good atmosphere giving right signals of a serious subject but a very entertaining one.
Can you tell us a bit more about Siddam?
Siddam gave birth in the hands of Ram Gopal Varma. He was too generous to give it to me and stood by us throughout the project. He even participated in our promotional activities and helped us to ensure proper reach of the right locations.
What about Homam?
It was a film started by someone and I had to take over in between. I redid the entire film and gave a different shape to it. I believed in doing things in a bigger scale. It is the first ever project of mine with a big budget that fetched me good returns. With Dil Raju's good support, this big budget movie was the first one of Jagapathi Babu to be released with 120 prints.
How did you come to films?
My father concentrates on construction business in Vizag and Hyderabad . I too am into the same line but I concentrate on infra-stuructural projects in Madhya Pradesh. This business fetches us enough income for our living. So you can understand that my entry into film making is sheerly out of passion. It gives me high degree of satisfaction to do movies and achieve success.
Now that Siddam is hitting the theaters you must be having definite plans for next project. Can you share with us about that?
UTV keeps me busy if I need to fight a corporate house I need to concentrate totally to take it to logical conclusion.
What is the real problem with UTV?
They are a big corporate house represented by many people. I dealt with one Sunil Wadhwa to buy the Telugu rights of the Hindi film ‘A Wednesday'. Sunil Wadhwa fixed a price of 21 lakhs for Telugu remake. I paid the entire amount and Rs 1.8 lakhs towards VAT. I issued three cheques on 4 th December which was also promptly acknowledged by UTV.
Then what really happened? 
Soon after issuing the cheques, I had to go to Dubai for Siddam shooting. It is at this time Sunil conveyed the need for payment in foreign currency as UTV's parent organization is from Mauritius . I responded to him that I would check with my bank and revert. From then on I made many calls to Sunil who, for some reasons did not answer my calls. So ultimately I realized from him that Chairman of UTV decided to produce the movie on their own. It was a rude shock to me as I have already paid many artists a considerable amount to convince them for an uninterrupted shooting for 45 days. Now, with this change in their stand I'm bound to loose heavily. So I had to file and injunction and stop the remaking of ‘A Wednesday' in Telugu.
What is UTV's argument?
I filed a case on 20th December and around 15 days were spent on arguing the case. UTV argued on the basis that there were no agreements on paper. We countered citing the recent High Court ruling accepting the electronic media. Thus I produced my cell phone which has many SMS messages from Sunil Wadhwa.
Homam and Siddam have been taken by you from somebody with mutual consent. Seems you will continue this aspect in ‘A Wednesday' also. (laughs)
I've high regards and respects for the likes of Kamal Hassan and Mohan Lal and have nothing against them.
How are you going to further proceed with UTV?
They are corporates and think that they can do anything with individuals like me. It is not correct. Infact I've all the evidences and am sure that I can win this case. In worst situations I will not hesitate to go to Supreme Court also.
Is there any support from film fraternity?
Yes! Particularly I want to thank Jagapathi Babu for his support in this crusade. He joined me by signing the affidavit as co-applicant in fighting for our ethical values, honour and dignity and set precedence so that the corporates do treat the individuals as their partners than slaves.
