It is a great pleasure in having the interview of “Sri Rama Rajyam” film producer yalamanchili Sai Babu.
Here is the interview……..
Sir, please let us know about your family and your background.
I have my parents to thank for their blessings and inspiration. Our family roots and my child life were spent at kanumuru a village near Vijayawada. And later had my education completed in Kanpur. I have always been an avid follower and drew inspiration from creative and literary artists in all fields of work.
Basically you are a well known Industrialist.What inspired you to enter Tollywood?
It was always my passion to be in the film industry and deliver products to the masses, which would incorporate values and ethics at the same time provide and portray technical brilliance that lay in our film industry.
How “Sri RamaRajyam” project happen?
It was during the week prior to religious ritual performance commencement of a Rama Sai temple constructed at chintakunta, a village near the holy place Sri Sailam. I did think it would be nice to do something related to lord Rama, i had contacted my friend and immediately, we had embarked on this project.
Tell us about “Sri Rama Rajyam” movie?
It’s been a life ambition to create a beautiful product for the Telugu audiences, and I am glad to have been able to put this through with the movie of Sri Rama Rajyam.
Sir, please share your experience working with Director Bapugaru, Music Director Illayaraja garu, the Actors Akkinenigaru and Balakrishnagaru.
It was truly a wonderful experience in working with the stalwarts. We worked together as a great team. Understanding each other and providing their inputs accordingly. It was a true pleasure to work with them. From the casting of the stars to technical brilliance in sound, art and acting there was a true dedication from everyone.
The reasons for selecting Nayanatara for Seetha’s role.
After contemplating on who would fit in the role of Sita, It was a very thoughtful decision to have Nayanatara to be casted in the role after watching her performance in the movie Simha, the duo- Balakrishna and Nayanatara had shown a great performance that could entice the audiences.
What is the budget of the movie?
Do watch the movie and then please give us a review on the product. This movie was done with pure passion and as an ambition.
Let us know about the shooting locations?
We had shot the movie in the outskirts of Hyderabad where we had erected valmiki ashram sets, done by art director Ravi and the latter with all the darbar sets at Ramoji film city by art director Kiran.
Let us know about the making of “Sri RamaRajyam”?
It has been an enthralling experience creating a great epic for the film industry. With the amazing audio launch response, nearly 1,25,000 people had gathered at the auspicious place Badrachalam alone. It has been truly an amazing journey in producing this film. We had more than 100 live musicians who had worked for the re-recording alone and Ilaiyaraja has poured his heart out and worked really hard in churning out tunes that could sway and appeal to all generation of audiences. We had musicians performing for this movie across Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and European musicians, who had worked for it. The premixing for the RR was also done in Europe. We had roped in 4 CG companies to do the graphics and visual effects to complete the project, each of them hiring their own technicians from Hollywood.
A true dedication from the art director Mr.Kiran and staff at Ramoji Film city, worked really hard in creating magnificent sets. We had 350 carpenters and moulders who had worked on the project to build various darbar sets.
After a long gap in Tollywood you have made “Sri Rama Rajyam”, a Mythological movie. Explain the reasons for taking this dare step.
Our greatest epics and their essence in values and culture do not take precedence over other affairs to our current generation and our daily lives. Ram portrays a great personality; he is a great administrator, a husband and a warrior. He truly signifies an inspiring persona to which i admire. Many people only know about the first 6 chapters in Ramayana until the defeat of Ravana and return of Lord Rama along with Sita from exile. “UttaraKhanda” has been long forgotten and its essence is needed to resonate and promote family values.
There was no better way to convey the message of Ramayana to the populace other than celluloid and thus this movie had taken its shape.
We have the details of those on the screen in Sri Rama Rajyam.Please give us the details of those worked behind the screen for this movie.
We had an inspiring technical team behind the project who had worked to their best of abilities. Every single one of them has played an intricate role in weaving this beautiful movie.
Bapu and Ramana were great assets, through their interwind skills of artwork with screenplay; they have done a tremendous job. Maestro Illaiyaraja’s tunes swayed every audience’s hearts listening to the audio of this movie.
Makuta arts, Pixelloid and EFX provided the graphic and visual effects. PRK Raju, our cameraman worked along with director brilliantly.
Mr BALAJEE our executive director played a very integral role in the production of this film. Edida raja my friend had also helped in articulating this product. Mr.Kiran our art director had laid out beautiful designs for the darbars and ravi had also worked on the Valmiki ashram.
There are many to name, I will be running out of list and space….. It was a tremendous team effort.
You have built a very big “Shirdi Sai Baba temple” very recently near Srisailam.What inspired you to do so?
It was not built recently. It has been developed over a decade. Initially there was a community who had come to for donations, being a devotee of ShirdiSaiBaba, I took it upon myself to develop the temple from the initial stages. We have created peaceful atmosphere, where devotees can relax in pure bliss. An Anna dhanasatram has also been built there, to serve food to the devotees and community.Through the temple we have also established Siva SaiSudharmaSeva Trust: through which we have been donating and lending a helping hand to nearly 150 government schools by providing them with libraries, been providing the means to live with for economically deprived individuals.
Please let us know about your upcoming projects?
Well only time will tell.
Thank You sir.
Interview By
Diwakar
INT/20
