Kavya was just three and a half years old at that time. She's the daughter of Urmila gaari sister (Urmila gaaru is Gunnam Gangaraju's wife.), and the granddaughter of ex-Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Bhavanam Venkatram. So she used to call Urmila gaaru as "Uri peddamma" and I used to call her the same too - they just treated everyone the same way. I have a lot of good memories of the film from its shooting times. The lunch break was delayed one day but Kavya and I went and had our lunch much before others came to eat. Gangaraju uncle was angry and yelled that 70 other people in the unit but us were present for the shot and that we should wait for everyone and probably have a juice or something if we were hungry instead of taking a long lunch break! I remember another funny incident: At that young age, I had a fascination for pencils. I did some homework in a shot break with a pencil that we used in the shoot and stowed it away in my school bag. I didn't know that the same pencil was actually was required for a continuity shot with Kavya, and they searched everywhere before I gave it away finally. How can I understand the importance of shot continuity at that age (laughs)!
...Gangaraju gaaru is a perfectionist. He never compromised on any shot. As she was just a kid, Kavya had to sometimes retake a single shot for 20 times or so before he okayed it. He used to be very patient until we showed him the desired performance, though. The major plus points for the film were Gangaraju gaari natural dialogues, treatment, Seetarama Sastry gaari lyrics, Sri gaari music and Rasool gaari camera-work. Who can forget the song sarElE oorukO... or I am a very good girl.... Little Soldiers will top the list of the best movies I did as a child artiste! I can always cherish working for that movie.
Urmila Gangaraju on the film:
Most of the film was shot in Nanakramguda, at a farmhouse owned by a friend of Venkat Akkineni. The song sarElE oorukO... was shot in Gangaraju's native place. We used Annapurna Studios for the song aDagaalanundi oka doubt-ni.... Most of the song was shot on blue mat, and the outdoor was done in Bharathiya Vidyabhavan Auditorium. The canal shot, where Sudhakar throws the kids into the water, was shot in Tenali; we went all the way there to do that single scene as Sudhakar made a big issue about coming to East Godavari district, when we could have finished it along with Sareley song.
Gangaraju wanted a stylish looking mother character for the kids. I saw the film Hrudayam, which was a big hit at that time, and recommended her to Gangaraju. Ramu (Ramgopal Varma) arranged a meeting with Heera and she immediately agreed to do the film. The girl who dubbed for Urmila Matondkar in Anaganagaa oOka Roju dubbed for Heera in the film. Ramesh Aravind was Gangaraju's selection. He saw Aravind in the promos of a film by Ushakiron Movies, where he played opposite Urmila Matondkar. (Jayasudha played the mother role of Urmila in that film... I can't remember the movie title now.) Music director Sri dubbed for Ramesh Aravind in the film. Dubbing Janaki generally dubbed in Telugu for Rohini Hattangadi (in Seetharamayya Gaari Manavaraalu & Theerpu). For this film too, she was our initial choice but after she dubbed, Gangaraju felt that her voice sounded too meek for the arrogant character in the film. At that time, actress Subha (ANR's classic film Devadas director Vedantam Raghavayya's daughter, who got popular as the heroine of the film Gooduputhaani with Krishna, and did many movies as character artiste later) was in Hyderabad and Gangaraju requested her to dub for Rohini. She was not comfortable with the idea of dubbing for someone else as she had never done it before, but upon Gangaraju's insistence, she did the dubbing in the film. As far as I know, this is the only film where she dubbed for someone else on the screen. We dubbed the voice of Master Narasimham, the kid who eats dog biscuits in the film, by Nandini (Assistant Director for the film, now an RJ on Radio Spandana).
