The angry young man of yester years, he made the unpolished, rustic look the fashion mode of the day. On the occasion of his birthday on 20th January, rebel star Krishnam Raju talks about his successor in films, his nephew the young and talented Prabhas and his film career.
Q: What is you birthday wish for this year?
A: Films. That is my wish. I want to do films with the right scripts. I want to work 20 days of the 30 in a month.
Q: Any interesting work coming along?
A: Yes there is. The role of a professor in an NRI production that deals with the concept of brain washing.
Q: Which of the roles that you portrayed is your favorite?
A: The roles that is portrayed in the films Manavuri Pandavalu and Katakatala Rudraiah are my favorites. Both these films released within a span of 2 weeks and both were hits. Yet the two roles were entirely different.
Q: What differences do you observe in film making during your time and now?
A: In those days an actor’s main priority was the film. Legendary actor ANR only charged a modest 50,000 for a number of years even though his films were big hits and producers offered him double and triple the remuneration. But he stuck on. Only after a long time he increased it to 1lakh and eleven thousand. That amount made such a big news that people were talking about it for days together. Even I was loyal to my producers although I was offered a high pay. Our aim at that time was to cut down the production costs. More than the film makers the distributors made good profits. But now the system is reversed. With the actors and producers quoting high prices and with the slab system the distributors are at a loss. Because not all big budget movies are guaranteed hits. The trend started after Indra. But producers should realize that just because they are making movies with high production costs it does not guarantee success.
Q: What about the difference in music?
A: During that time a lot of research was done, especially if we were using regional music. For my film Bhakta Kannappa, we went to tribal areas to record their music and songs. That is how the song "Ennivallo" was composed. Music great like K.V.Mahadevan composed beautiful tunes no matter what the lyrics, like the editorial of a newspaper (Smiles...). We composed 7 songs in 7 days for my film Manavuri Pandavulu.
Q: Did you see Yogi?
A: Yes.
Q: And what do you think of it?
A: Prabhas has definitely matured as an actor. The first half of the film is absolutely amazing. And because the second of the film is sentimental and performance oriented, the film’s success depends on how the audiences’ perceive that half of the movie.
Q: Will uncle and nephew share the screen space?
A: Definitely, when the right script comes along. There are a couple of scripts that look interesting and once things are finalized the project may take off in august or September. After that I will concentrate on my dream project Visala Netralu which I will be directing.
Q: Do you envision a separate Telangana?
A: See it is something like, when your brother wants to go and live a separate life then we should let him go. If the people of Telangana genuinely want a separate state for themselves then it should happen. But if politicians are demanding it to satisfy their own selfish needs then it is wrong.
