Producer Vasiraju Prakasham speaks about the film...
I was working as a journalist in Filmfare, which was a part of the Times of India group. I was the only journalist for them in Madras at that time working for Times of India. I worked there for almost 25 years (1970-1995). The incident that inspired the movie happened in the life of a very near relative. I conceived the basic story line based on the incident, and I went to Sree Bollimuntha Sivaramakrishna gaaru, who expanded it into a full-length story and we approached K. Viswanath gaaru to direct the film for me.
My only choice for the artistes were Sobhan Babu and Sarada. I thought Sarada suited the role well, as she has a very innocent face and beautiful eyes. For the role of the brahmin boy, I had only one person in the mind - Sobhan Babu - and he did complete justice to the role. Sobhan was very disciplined and used to be very punctual in his timings. He used to work only 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., but was also very cooperative. He used to work late hours if required. Sarada, on the other hand, is different. We needed to in fact tell her each day that the shooting is over and that she can go home. It was work was the only thing she knew - work, work, and more work! ...Devadas Kanakala was then working in song and drama division, and I called him to ask him to act in the film. He worked only for three hours and completed the whole scene and went back the same day. That was his debut into film acting! Chandramohan, Devadas Kanakala, and I were roommates for some time. I knew Chandramohan from the days of Rangula Raatnam. Owing to the friendship we thus shared, he acted in this film. Incidentally, this was his first film under the direction of K. Viswanath gaaru. All the artistes were completely cooperative for the film ...except one artiste whose name I do not want to mention now, as it's all over thirty years back.
The film was 100th film for Saluri gaaru, we got to know that when he mentioned it casually while recording a song one day. We immediately called all the music directors and singers and arranged lunch for all of them and felicitated him in the recording theatre itself! P. Susheela gaaru was in the recording theater for the song E talli paaDEnu jOla... - she completed it after the feliciation that day. All the singers and music directors in Chennai were there from 12 noon to 4 p.m. that day in the recording theater, which is a memorable moment for me. As it is his hundredth film, S. Rajeswara Rao also lent his voice for a song in the movie after a long time (maaraledulE kaalam, maaraledu ee lOkam...).
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