Sri: Tell me about Geethanjali, how did you get Maniratnam agree to do the film for you?
C.L.N.R.: Actually, I approached Mani to do a film for me after he did Agni Natchattiram Gharshana). He readily agreed to do the film as he wanted to do films in other languages too. He liked the way Rajasri wrote dialogues for the dubbed film Gharshana though he was not familiar with Telugu, and thus he asked Rajasri to work with him for this film. Rajasri is an excellent writer who knows both languages very well. The dialogues were first explained in Tamil and were then written by Rajasri gaaru in Telugu. In the same way, he got all the lyrics translated in English to know the exact meaning of each word in Telugu. (

Sri: What inspired you to make Geethanjali instead of some action thriller or something else?
C.L.N.R.: Mani liked the theme of the movie called Young Die First, and wanted to do something similar to that. At about that time, a Delhi-based 11-year old girl called Geethanjali was suffering from blood cancer; she wrote her feelings in a diary which was later published. Mani read the book and was moved by its content, and thus chose the film's title, and the heroine's name, as Geethanjali.

Sri: How was Girija selected for the female lead?
C.L.N.R.: Girija was cricketer Srikanth's sister's friend from London. When she came to Chennai, she came to Maniratnam and Suhasini's marriage along with Srikanth's sister. Mani saw her and offered her the movie after the marriage. Her mother is a doctor from Karnataka, while her father is a British businessman. Senior Associate Director Gadiraju Keshava Rao gave dialogue coaching to Girija for two months. She used to write them in English and used to practice them under his guidance for perfection.

Sri: What is Girija doing now?
C.L.N.R.: She went back to London...

Sri: I heard that you used to send two lorries of ice everyday from Chennai to Ooty...
C.L.N.R.: (Surprised) Yes, we did that to create the mist effect in the film! We could have used smoke bombs like others,  but the effect is not like real mist, which we can get with sub-zero temperature of ice.

Sri: Doesn't such a decision shoot the budget high?
C.L.N.R.: Nope. Mani is an MBA graduate and was clear about the budget and was also very conscious about it. He gave the budget along with the schedules, clearly outlining how much would be the budget for each schedule, ...and he stuck to it! Even then, he used to ask us from time to time, between schedules, whether he was crossing the budget, and I used to tell him to go with what he wants and not to bother about how much it'd cost. He is a producer's director who wanted to make it clear that he does not want to spend for anything that's not required.

Sri: Though the film won seven Nandi Awards and a National Award, what I heard was that the film was break even film for you, and is not so highly successful like other movies...
C.L.N.R.: I made profit in Telugu too, anDI - not a big one but it's not a loss venture! To tell you the truth, I made more profit in Tamil than in Telugu. We dubbed the film into Tamil in a partnership with Maniratnam and it made huge profits there. I made around 15 lakh rupees of profit in Telugu, at the most, while my share alone in Tamil was almost fifty lakh rupees!

Sri: What about the Malayalam version?
C.L.N.R.: It was just an average film in Malayalam. It was not a big hit but it was not a loss either, as it was only dubbed into the language.

Sri: What went wrong with the Hindi version then?
C.L.N.R.: Actually, we were not aware of the Hindi version until the last minute. Maine Pyar Kiya was released as the same time as Geethanjali, and it was a big hit. Tarachand Barjatya of Rajshree Pictures came to Chennai to dub Maine Pyar Kiya, saw the film Geethanjali and was so immensely impressed with the movie that he wanted to do it in Tamil and sent me a letter of appreciation. I was really happy and went to meet him and readily agreed to give rights to him. While this was going on, one day my PRO said that Atluri Purnachandra Rao was curious if I gave rights to the film Yaad Rakhegii Duniya which was in final stages of shooting.. (My PR also happens to be the PRO for Atluri Purnachandra Rao). I was really shocked and went to the court to stall the project. The film was eighty percent completed and the producer also kept his Mercedes with the debtors to clear the loan he took. Seeing his plight, we gave away the rights finally. The film was really badly made which showed the result. (Like Mani's another remake Naayakan when remade in Hindi as Dayaavaan, it is a dud!)

Sri: I heard that you were forced to distribute Geethanjali in some areas..
C.L.N.R.: True! Distributors in Vizag and Guntur backed out in the last minute as they felt that people may not like the film which has to do patients who know they are dying. They said the movie had no commercial elements. When I announced the movie first, I only said that I was doing a movie with Maniratnam of Gharshana fame, but I didn't talk about the story. I thus kept my word and had not forced them to buy. But, to release it as per schedule, I took these areas on my own and distributed them. I made good profits in those areas, in fact! Nellore we distributed with the partnership of a friend. Rest of the areas were distributed by outsiders totally.

Sri: After such a classy movie, why is that you moved to mass-oriented films like Chinarayudu and Vajram?
C.L.N.R.: Actually, I didn't have any plans to do the film Chinarayudu. Our plan was to make a film in the combination of R.K. Selvamani and Venkatesh. Venkatesh, Krishnam Raju, and Vijayashanti were supposed to be the stars. We shot the film for five days, but Venkatesh suddenly changed his mind and said he couldn't do that film due to some reasons. (At the same time, Yarlagadda Surendra also started a movie with Venkatesh under the direction of Bapayya, and even that film was stopped for unknown reasons.) So, we got the rights of Chinna Gownder and remade it in Telugu under the direction of B. Gopal.

Sri: What went wrong with Vajram? It's Malayalam original, Sphatikam, was a phenomenal hit...!
C.L.N.R.: Yes, the Malayalam version was a big hit but in Telugu, the director was not able to handle the subject to suit our nativity. A remake needs to capture the soul of the film and not its scenes.