We actually thought nijam telusukOnDi... sung by Ramakrishna (lyrics by Dasarathi) will be a bigger hit than the other songs, but E talli paaDEnu jOla... and mundarunna chinnadaani... were all-time hits, and I am happy anyway!

The film was completely shot in Madras. We planned to wrap the budget up in five lakh rupees, but other than the lead pair I went along with the decision of K. Viswanath gaaru. We completed it in four lakhs and fifty thousand rupees (As a comparison, Sobhan Babu-Sarada combo films like Sarada, Idaa Lokam...! spent about six lakh rupees per film at that time.) Most of the films then were financed by distributors. Lakshmi Films came forward to finance our film. My capital was only fifty thousand rupees, and the rest of the money was arranged by Lakshmi Films. I think the film collected around thirteen lakh rupees at that time, because after the capital investment and the threater rent and other expenses, they gave me five lakhs in the first run. (The distributors used to have rights to the film for four or five years, depending on the contract, and they can screen the film during this time, deduct fifteen to twenty per cent as their commission and pay the rest to the producer).

The film released in 30 centers and celebrated 100 days in five centers at that time - Hyderabad (Venkatesa - it was not 70 mm at that time), Vijayawada, Guntur, Vizag, and Tirupathi were the centers. It won two Nandi Awards that year, Best film and best story. (That was a time when there were no awards announced for the Best Artistes, including hero and heroine.) As we were all in Madras at that time, the state government offered to arrange three extra tickets and accommodation for any artistes that we can choose to attend the function, besides the producer, director, and the writer. Thus, Sobhan Babu, Sarada, and Anjali Devi attended the function along with us. We again felicitated Saluri gaaru at Ravindra Bharathi, Hyderabad then.

Later, my name appeared as the producer for films like Bommala Koluvu and Palle Paduchu, but my contribution was very less for these films, as a matter of fact. Bennett and Coleman, who own the Times of India, never permitted me to do another film after this film. Palle Paduchu was a commerically success that was later remade in Tamil and became a bigger hit than in Telugu. Bommala Koluvu was an average film on the other hand. I still have a zeal to make a film, though I do not have any money to spare for a film. I have a wonderful script to do a film, but due to lack of financial resources, I am not doing it. I can ask Girish Sanghi, my employer, with whom I share a very good relationship, but it's not my nature to use people. So I chose not to do not that.