Star Interviews
Director Bellamkonda Satyam - Chitchat
By Sri
Aug 6, 2009 - 11:25:05 AM

I heard the name of Satyam Bellamkonda from Naani when he signed the film Snehitudaa..! and also from Ravikiran (Laya serial fame) who's doing another important role in the film. Though I planned to do his interview earlier, it just got delayed beyond schedule due to various reasons and I finally caught hold of him today and spoke to him for a brief time. Here are the excerpts from it for our readers:

Sri: What's your background?
Satyam: I am from Karalapadu from Piduguralla Mandal near to Guntur. My father is an RMP Doctor. I studied there until Intermediate and then went to Kasu Brahmananda Reddy College at Narasaraopeta for my Bachelors degree, but I used to be at movie theatres more times that I was at the college. As my interest in movies dominated, I wanted to become an actor and absconded from there to Hyderabad.

Sri: Interesting! And, what made you move to direction instead of acting then?
Satyam: I didn't know any one at Hyderabad and was not sure how I could go about my pursuit. I initially joined as a cashier in a vegetarian restaurant near New MLA Quarters. After working there for a while, I made some friends among politicians and with their help and encouragement, I planned to go to Chennai and try in films there. I thus landed in Chennai and started going around production offices. Like with anyone else who roamed around, I was promised some role sometimes and was asked to show up the next week or next month and so on... but they were never materialized, like in many such cases too. A friend of mine then advised me to venture into some technical department in films, and he took me to Mouli gaaru and got me in his direction department. Aswani (with athlete Aswani Nachappa) was my first film as an assistant. I worked with Mouli gaaru for some time and then joined Muppalaneni Siva gaaru with the film Raja.

Sri: So when did you came back to Hyderabad?
Satyam: Muppalaneni Siva gaaru shifted to Hyderabad and I came along. I later joined Sravanthi Movies and worked with Ramana gaaru for films like Elaa Cheppanu..! and Gowri. I moved on to Eetharam Films and worked for Ranam, Yagnyam, Ontari and so on. I worked for Dongodu with Bheemineni Srinivasa Rao, Sowryamwith Siva, Kick with Surender Reddy and so on. In between all these films, I went back to my village and took a break for two years but came back after that as I felt my future was in this career.

Sri: I think you also worked for Veerabhadra?
Satyam: Yes, that was after Yagnyam, when A.S. Ravikumar Chowdary gaaru got a chance to work for the film and asked me to join.

Satyam Bellamkonda

Sri: So what happened after that?
Satyam: I did Veerabhadra and then got an offer to work for Shankar Dada Zindabad, through Production Executive Kamakshi Venkateswara Rao gaaru who recommended me to them when they were looking for an Associate Director. I did that film and there I met Pedababu (Ravishankar Prasad). He offered to make a film with me if I would come up with a good story. I took some time and went back to him with a story for a big hero film. He liked it but we couldn't get any big hero's dates right away, and so he asked me to come up with a different story. That's when I took to him this story (gearing up for release as Snehitudaa..!). He liked it very much, and we approached Naani who was just then riding high on the success of Ashta Chemma. After hearing the story, That day seemed like a great day, said Naani, because he had just got news that he got the Best Actor Award for Ashta Chemma and then he heard the best story, and he readily agreed to do the film. First, we thought of registering the title Inthaku Neevevaru? (There's a lyric in the film that starts of with this line.) but then we chose the title as Snehitudaa..! on the advice of Pedababu.

Sri: The audio is a good hit, alright, but the music director Shivashankar is not well known...
Satyam: He's actually a good composer who gave good musical hits in Telugu and as well as Tamil. He even worked for Vijay’s films in Tamil. In Telugu, he did films like Snehamante Ideraa!, Priyamaina Neeku, Manasanthaa, etc. in Telugu. While working for a film on Ushakiron banner, the Production Executive of that film told Shivashankar that he has the looks of a hero, and he thus started looking for hero chances, roaming around with his portfolio. He eventually neglected some offers as music director and that's the reason for the gap in his movies as music director, but we all know the hit songs such as manasuna unnadi... (Priyamaina Neeku) that he scored.

Sri: Tell us some more about Snehituda..!
Satyam: The movie is a youthful, family entertainer that can be watched sitting with entire family without discomfort. The whole family can laugh throughout the film. Sai (Naani) meets Savithri (Madhavilatha) but they do not get along well in the beginning. How Sai still helps Savithri without her knowledge is narrated in an entertaining way. Hilarious episodes with M.S. Narayana in the first half, and Brahmanandam's episodes in the second half make the film a complete entertainer.

Sri: The film is releasing after the blockbuster Magadheera. Don’t your think it'd be tough to attract audience at such a time?
Satyam: This film is entirely different from that film, and you cannot compare them both! I do not think it poses an issue of competition or getting audience to the film.

I wished him best of luck on the film and concluded the interview.

Edited by: NaChaKi
Interview: Sri Atluri 

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