Director Beeram Masthan Rao talks about his debut film...
I used to play a lot of dramas right from my school days. I got to know Adivishnu as I was doing plays. With that friendship, he recommended my name to the producers who were planning to do the film Balamithrula Katha for which he was the dialogue writer. Due to some reasons, the film was stopped midway, but seeing my work there Jagayya gaaru took me into his home production Sabhash Paapanna as an assistant to S.S. Lal. After completing that, I worked for Kanne Vayasu with K. Bapayya and worked with him for seven years for the films like Eduru Leni Manishi, Indradhanassu, Charitraheenulu, etc. Meanwhile, I also did with Raghavendra Rao gaaru for the film Babu.
The last film I worked with Bapayya gaaru is Saahasavanthudu. While doing that film, I got close with the producer K. Vidyasagar gaaru and he offered me to direct the next film. My choice of hero was Krishna and so I went and approached him for the dates. Krishna gave me the dates for the film after five months. Saahasavanthudu was a flop and the producer was not in a position to make another film. I made him buy the rights for the Telugu dubbed version of Rajinikant's Priya, which fetched him a table profit of five lakhs, and this motivated him to start the film.
Krishna and Jayaprada was a hit pair at that time. So, we paid an advance amount of five thousand rupees to Jayaprada. Krishna suggested to remake Kashme Vaade as it will be safe for a debutant director that I was, and informed that the rights were with Sunderlal Nahta. We went and talked to Srikanth Nahta, son of Sunderlal Nahta, who orally agreed to give the rights for sixty thousand rupees. Taking his word, I went ahead and started working on the script to suit it to Telugu nativity. I worked on that and went again to complete the agreement details ...and I faced a rude shock when Srikanth said that they wanted to make the picture on their own and that they'd not want to sell the rights. I do not know what to do as we planned to start shooting only a week from then! I went and informed the same to Krishna gaaru and said that I will come up with a new story.
Jandhayala and I went to Bangalore to get some good film's remake rights, but we didn't like any of them. While returning, I narrated a small story to him. He liked it immediately and worked on to develop a complete script with Satyanand. Meanwhile, Nahta approached Krishna to do the same film for him, and thankfully for us, Krishna gaaru refused, saying that he'll do the film only if I direct it but they were not ready anyway.
I already decided to go with the new story, and I told him that I'd come tell him the story the next day, and wanted to confirm with the heroine before then. Jayaprada gaaru gave another shock - that she'd not do the film if it was not the remake of Kashme Vaade! When we pleaded her explaining the situation, she said she'd make a decision in 3 days and let us know, but we couldn't afford to wait since the shooting was to start on the 4th day from then! It was a time when Padunaaru Vayadinile (Tamil version of Padaharella Vayasu) was a super hit, and so we thought we could try for Sridevi gaaru. We went to her and requested that we'd tell her the story next day and that she could give us try to give her dates only if she likes the story.
Krishna liked the story a lot, and he enjoyed the narration all through. But, there was a shock waiting from his side too - that he adjusted our dates to someone else because he didn't think we could come up with a story he liked really! Sridevi gaaru didn't have more than 8 days here and there, and Krishna gaaru could finally adjust only 20 days. We thought that was the best possible thing in the given situation, after all the shocks, paid advance to Sridevi gaaru and planned to start recording songs by the next day. Since we had our advance with Jayaprada gaaru, I went to collect it back but then she said she could do the film, because the Nahta team convinced Sobhan Babu to do the film with Jayaprada gaaru but since Sobhan gaaru didn't have dates for the next three months and so she was free to do our film! But we simply said that we took another heroine and brought the advance back, without telling the then-upcoming heroine Sridevi's name to an already established Jayaprada to be on the safer side.
Finally, we started the film with Navayuga handling the distribution - that was a time when distributors ruled the roost. About 10 reels were shot, and the distributors apparently felt that my work seemed amateurish, and the producer conveyed me their opinion. I assured him that I'd promise its success, and we continued the movie.
