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| Suhasini with Vamsy in the sets of Manchupallaki |
Director Vamsy speaks...
I met Vemuri Satyanarayana first time when I went to Jyothi Monthly office. As I already sent a novel to them, he thought I came all over from Andhra Pradesh to Madras to see if it'd be published! I clarified that I was working as assistant director with Madhusudana Rao
gaaru, and he felt happy. When Prasad Rao
gaaru and Vemuri
gaaru planned to produce a movie, I showed place for their office near my house; it was previously the office for
Sankarabharanam film. As it was near my house, I used to visit the office very often and used to participate in the discussions. For the director, several names came up: Bapu
gaaru, Jandhyala
gaaru, Vejella Satyanarayana, Relangi Narasimha Rao, Eranki Sarma,
etc. were considered. For some reason or the other, none of them worked out!
...One early morning, Vemuri Satyanarayana
gaaru came to my house and took me by utter surprise saying that he wants me to be the director for the film! I was not at all ready to do it at that time, and I was not at all happy with his decision because I never thought of directing a film before I turned 30. Also, I never wanted to do a remake! I tried totell him the same but he didn't listen to me and insisted that I should be the director or the movie will never be done! Seeing his confidence in me, I asked him to give me 1000 feet film roll and a day to shoot to ensure my own confidence levels, and he agreed. I exposed only 400 feet film and shot a mock film with Indian Oil Murthy
gaaru and others. I got it developed in Prasad Labs, saw the rush in Apsara Preview Theatre near Kodambakam bridge down ...and well, I was confident enough! I agreed to do the film with one condition that the senior associate director had to be replaced, and they agreedto that too.
...It was Yandamuri who suggested the title
Manchu Pallaki, also the name of my first novel, which was published in Andhra Jyothi weekly. Rajan-Nagendra and I didn't get along well as they felt I was too young and did not have much domain knowledge. This hurt me and I vouched to never work with them again. ...Chiranjeevi was very busy at that time and gave 16 days on the whole during twomonths, and thus we completed his shoot in that 16 days in Hyderabad. We thought of doing the film in and around Nallakunta actually, near Shankar Mutt since the locality has a residential colony and a local railway station nearby. But, we thought Nallakunta could be more crowded since it's near Osmania University. Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar, on the other hand, was considered city outskirts back then and it wasnot at all crowded like today, and thus we chose S.R. Nagar area for the shoot.
>>> Page 3: Suhasini and Chiranjeevi speak about
Manchu Pallaki
