Movie Retrospect
Burripalem Bullodu (1979)
Story:
About the film: Songs like Burripalem bullivaaDini nEnE..., naa jeevana bRndaavani... and pantulU pantulU... were chartbusters at that time. Audience liked Krishna performing Kuchipudi-style dance steps in Burripalem bullivaaDini nEnE.... It's heard that the then-C.M. Marri Chennareddy was watching the movie in Sandhya 70 mm theater in Hyderabad, and requested that the song pantulU pantulU... be repeated. © Copyright by Telugucinema.com
Director Beeram Masthan Rao talks about his debut film... 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. © Copyright by Telugucinema.com
I knew beforehand that the songs on Krishna and Sridevi, particularly the Kuchipudi-style dance for the title song, would enthrall the audience a lot! ...A song that was supposed to be shot on Krishna and Sridevi was replaced with a song on Krishna and Jayamalini instead, as Sridevi hurt her leg during the shoot and was thus made to sit in a club during the song. My dilemma and trouble did not end there! On the day of release, I went to Vijayawada as per my producer's suggestion. The general practice was that the distributors come pick up the director from the railway station and take them to their hotel, book a room on his name and treat him hospitably. However, no one came to receive me, and I took a rickshaw to the hotel, learnt that there was no room on my name in their hotel, took a room myself, and went to the distributors' office the next day, when the first day morning show of the film was to start in less than two hours. To my utter shock, the distributors, after waiting for a long time, told me that they want to trim the climax of the film, and that the film would at the most be an average fare anyway! I kept my cool and requested them to wait until at least the first show to be completed, because it's less than an hour anyway! He reluctantly agreed and told me to go to the theater. As I expected, the film was received with great response from the audience, with everyone dancing and whistling for the songs, and even throwing money at the screen, and the film's hit range was understood by the interval itself! I was not known to anyone there, but an old friend of mine saw me and shouted my name when I walked out of the theater after the film was over. The audience rushed to me, were thrilled that I was the director of the film, and felicitated me there right there as much as they could! ...My directorial debut was thus a great experience to me in many ways! With a career that started with troubles, I made five more movies, but a supposedly lavish budget of forty lakh rupees for my last film with Chandramohan (Suvarna Sundari) was a "costly mistake" that made me quit direction! Release Theatres and Centers :
Article by Kiranpraba © Copyright by Telugucinema.com |
