Music Director Sri speaks...
I was helping my father in the recording theater when Ramu walked into the theater and asked my father if he could take me out for a while. (Ramu was actually recording in the ground floor of the same theater while we were on the first floor. Uttej and others informed him about me and so he wanted to meet me out of curiosity.) He took me to the theater and showed me a reel of
Antham which had no music and asked me where I'd place the music bits if given a chance and what sort of music I'd play where. I answered him in detail and he then played me the same reel with music this time. To my surprise, the places where I suggested music were devoid of music and it was used elsewhere, where I least expected it! I insisted that what I told was my choice and that it'd help the film better than the way it is done then. He said that he liked my guts to tell what I believed to be true, irrespective of what the director felt. He then asked what time I'd be free and asked me to meet him in the guest house once I complete my work. I went there to meet him late in the night, which was when he asked me if I'd do a film independently for him if he gave me an opportunity. I coldly said that many directors say things but don't mean it when they say something like this. Ramu said he wasn't like that and said I'd be doing
Gaayam if I was willing to do. He added that he was leaving to Mumbai the next morning and asked me to do compose couple of tunes and gave me a situation. His flight was scheduled at 8 a.m. and I called him at 6:30 a.m. to see if he can spare some time for me. He asked me to come over and I landed there in 15 minutes and gave him the tune for
alupannadi undaa... He was so excited and called
sirivennela
gaaru and made me the play the tune for him in the phone. That's how I became a music director! My remuneration for that movie was 3 lakh rupees.
Cameraman Rasool speaks...
After watching the film Mani sir asked who the cameraman was, adding that the work seems like that of a very experienced cameraman, to which Ramu replied that the cameraman is a debutant! Mani sir was surprised and complimented me saying I did a real good job par excellence, comparable to any experienced cameraman. That's the best compliment any newcomer can get!
About Seetharama Shastry's lyrics:
"I first sang the track for the song
niggadeesi aDugu... on which Balu
gaaru sang the final version. ...Earlier, for the film
Kallu, I did sing a song
tellaarindi leganDOy... under the music direction of Balu
gaaru." says Seetharama Shastry. It's also heard that Ramgopal Verma saw Seetharama Shastry's lyric
suraajyamavalEni swaraajyamendukani... and wrote the story inspired by that song. The song later won the Nandi Award for Best Lyric that year. (Interestingly, some people seem to think that the song that gave Shastry
gaaru the Nandi Award was
niggadeesi aDugu... and yet some others think Shastry
gaaru sang
niggadeesi aDugu... himself!) It's also heard that
sirivennela was not very familiar with Telangana accent of Telugu earlier (though he did give a touch of it in
Botany paaThamundi... earlier). But, when asked to pen
Nizam-u pOri..., he agreed and got audio cassettes of folk songs in Telangana accent and read literature in the local slang and finally delivered the lyrics that we now know, which are so very authentic! The film boasts of another good lyric in the form of
alupannadi undaa... rendered mellifluously by Chitra
gaaru.
cheli meeda chiTikeDu daya raadaa... may simply seem a filler but listening to the lyric can tell how situational the song is.
The second stanza (first
charaNam) of the song
suraajyamavalEni swaraajyamendukani... doesn't appear in the audio or the film, but Seetharama Shastry's book
sirivennela tarangaalu includes it. See how beautifully and emotionally pictographic the lyric is:
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| Hindi poster |
On the Hindi version:
First they thought of doing the Hindi version with same team of
Gaayam, they shot for one week with Jagapathi Babu and Urmila, and then Ramu dropped the idea of it. Ramu actually wanted Sanjay Dutt for the Hindi version and the shooting started too, under the title
Naayak. Ramu was also shooting for
Rangeela at that time, and his financiers were not keen on
Rangeela but were keen on
Naayak. Meanwhile, Sanjay Dutt was arrested in the Mumbai blasts case and the project was put on backburner and
Rangeela got completed and became a huge hit. Once Sanjay was released from jail, Ramu want to do a film similar to
Anaganagaa Oka Roju (which was started in 1994 by Krissnavamsi and he was not able to complete it in the said budget, so Varma took over it and completed and released it.) Thus was made
Daud with this combination, which was a disaster. Years later, the film was again remade as
Sarkar with Amitabh and Abhishek doing the roles of Charan Raj and Jagapathi Babu.
Tail piece: Finally Jagapathi Babu-Urmila starrer
Gaayam by Ramgopal Varma was released in Hindi as
Satya The Sarkar. The film was dubbed in Hindi and released in 2007 with the publicity saying for that the film marks the first combined work of Ramgopal Verma and Mani Rathnam. The film credits showed all Hindi technicians (for dance, music,
etc.). The film was a washout, though.
Article by: Sri Atluri
Edited by: NaChaKi
