Rajeev Reddy, a dynamic producer of “Gamyam” and “Krishnam Vande Jagathguram” shared his thoughts and opinions on the business and dynamics of films with businessoftollywood.com.
Here are the excerpts of the interview.
Interview with Producer Rajeev Reddy
Bot : Tell us about your Place of birth and date of birth ?
Rajeev : I was born in Hyderabad on 18th Feb 1977
Bot : Tell us about Family background ?
Rajeev : My father is a doctor and my mother is a house wife. My maternal grandfather Pidathala Ranga Reddy garu was part of the film industry. He was an exhibitor and also he was an Ex-Minister for cinematography. I think he was the first or second Chairman of censor board.
Apart from that we own few theatres in Gidduluru and Ongole in Prakasham District and my cousins are taking care of the theatres.
Bot : Tell us about your Educational Background ?
Rajeev: I have a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering at Kuvempu University, Mysore and a Masters Degree in Computer Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) New Jersey, USA.
Bot : When did you First meet Krish ?
Rajeev: Krish and I were classmates in FDU. Krish is always passionate about movies and our journey started and he was the one who encouraged me.
Bot : How did you enter into the film industry ? When did you and Krish together started business in India ?
Rajeev: This is because of Krish. Having studied together in US we came back to India around the same time. Basically Krish came back to India because he wanted to get into films. I came back because of some family obligations and I wanted to stay with my family.
We together started a business in India. And then eventually since Krish wanted to get into films as a director and I turned into a producer and we started our production.
Bot : What is your Banner Name ?
Rajeev : “First Frame entertainments Pvt Ltd” is our banner name. We are 4 partners in the company out of which three partners are from Krish family. Krish Handles the entire creative part and Krish’s father and I handle entire business operations. Krish’s brother-in-law is Bibo Srinivas owner of “BIBO Mineral water “and he is the backbone for all of us.
Bot : What is your First Production ?
Rajeev: Our first project started in 2007 we produced a movie titled “GAMYAM “. Krish was launched as a director.
Bot : Till now how many films have you produced ?
Rajeev: Till now we produced two films. Our first movie is “Gamyam” and our second movie is “Krishnam vande jagadgurum”. In between two projects we did one more project called “Morning Raga” which was directed by Mahesh Dattani produced by great director K. Raghavendra Rao garu.
We got dubbing rights of this movie and dubbed into Telugu and Tamil languages and released it.
Bot : Which genre of movies do you like ?
Rajeev : I personally like comedy movies.
Bot : What is the budget of “Gamyam” movie and who distributed it ?
Rajeev : For “Gamyam” our production cost was about 3.3 crs and the business was close to break even. Being the first film we did not have any expectations on the project and we have to struggle throughout the project being first time producer and first time director. So, for us breaking even of the project was a big thing. The movie did make a lot of money but being first time producers we couldn’t really encash on it. “Gamyam” has been remade in many other languages. We still hold Hindi rights, at some point we want to make it in Hindi version.
We sold “Gamyam” movie AP distribution rights to Pyramid Saimira. Pyramid Saimira, an Indian multinational entertainment company, operating in 6 countries was one of the World’s fastest growing entertainment group. Its diversified businesses included Exhibition (Theatre)
Bot : What is the budget of “Krishnam Vande Jagathguram” and who distributed this movie? How much this project made in terms of commercial aspects?
Rajeev: In KVJ we invested around 15 crores, the project was planned in about 8crs but we overshot the budget by 100%.
The movie was distributed by Suresh Movies in few areas like Nizam, Vizag and West and almost 50% areas we sold the rights.
This project is closed to break even with very slight loss. We planned the project in 8 crs and when we started the project the product had marketability between 8-10 crs. But by the time we finished the project its cost was escalated drastically way beyond expectation at around 15crs. Even though the cost went up proportionately we could promote and market the product in a much bigger way. If we had struck to our budget and made within 10 crs we would hit a jackpot but unfortunately there were some mistakes that we did which kind of escalated the project cost. We are happy that we haven’t loose much. We did a good project and even business was reasonable.
Bot : Who provided the idea for the story? Why did you choose Rana in the main lead, is there any particular reason?
Rajeev : Krish has provided the idea for the story. Krish wanted to start the movie as early as possible we got the dates of Rana and the reason behind this is Rana fit in the role.
Bot : What promotional activities you do for your movies?
Rajeev : Be it “Gamyam” or “KVJ” more than our personal promotion Press contributed in a very big way. They were very supportive they took the project as their own project and they went out of the way in supporting us. Almost 70 to 80% of the promotion was carried by the press and remaining we did in television, radio and little bit of print. We didn’t try anything different in terms of promotions but what we did it worked out.
Bot : What is your favourite movie among your productions?
Rajeev : I like both “Gamyam” and “KVJ”. Both are two different films in terms of production and quality. I like “Gamyam” the most. We have done a few mistakes in “KVJ”.
Bot : Tell us about your experience as a producer for both the movies ?
Rajeev: “Gamyam” and “KVJ” from our banner were tagged as sensible movies. Although the time lines between those two movies were 3 years, people recognised us during that gap as “Gamyam” makers. The credibility factor allowed us to buy time to make quality movies. The same rule will allow us to identify and churn out quality scripts and “KVJ” will give us that life line to sustain for two more years
Bot : Who is your favourite director ?
Rajeev: Among the current crop Krish has the makings to become a top class director because of his command on screenplay, narration and bringing the best output from his actors.
Bot : Who is your favourite Actors?
Rajeev : I Like Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth
Bot : Apart from film production what are the other business you involved?
Rajeev: Apart from movie business Krish and I started a career with a educational consulting company called “First council” where in we liaison with American Universities for student recruitment, articulation programmes exchange programmes etc. We still run that company. Right from the time we came back from US in 2000 until the time we made “Gamyam” for about 8yrs that was the only company keeping us alive like our primary bread and butter was coming from that company.
And Now First Frame entertainments apart from the two movies that we have done we have two ongoing television serials
- “Puttadi Bomma” on ETV from Monday to Saturday at 3:30PM
- “Swathichinukulu” on ETV from Monday to Saturday at 8:00 PM
“Puttadi Bomma” we have already crossed about 1200 episodes. We also got Nandi awards in the year 2010 for the best serial, best director, best lead artist, best writer, best cameramen, we got about 5 to 6 Nandi awards. I don’t think any other production got so many Nandi awards in one single year for one particular project.
“Swathi Chinukulu” is our second project and had just completed 150 episodes. This was first Telugu serial shot in Europe or rather first Indian serial shot in Europe.
We also have one construction company called “Moon Rock Infra Projects Pvt Ltd” it is just a couple of years old.
Bot : Any upcoming projects ?
Rajeev: Right now we are more focussing in television apart from our current projects. We are also working on couple of other scripts for television. And we want to do one small film this year the script is almost on the final stages so we are planning one small budget film definitely in the next three or four months. We are doing this project with new Director and Krish will over look the creative part of it. This movie is youthful comedy entertainer but it will also have Krish flavour to it like some kind of message.
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