Saroja Sree Sree in an TV interview

April 30, 2010 marks the centennary of SreeSree, who boldly claimed "ee Sataabdam naadi!" ("This century is mine!"), and deserved it too! It's been nearly a year since I spoke to Smt. Saroja SreeSree, the wife of legendary writer SreeSree, after she came to the USA for TANA 2009. Though I missed meeting her at TANA, I got the phone number of her son Sree Sreerangam Venkataramana, who stays in the USA, from Sree Vanguri Chitten Raju gaaru of Vanguri Foundation of America, Inc. (Incidentally, Sree Chitten Raju was SreeSree's host in Houston when the writer had come to the USA in the early '80s for the last time.) When I called Sree Venkataramana, he was traveling and asked me to call the next day at his home and gave me the landline number to call, and I did. An hour-long conversation ensued, and it was heartening to speak one-to-one with the life partner of a person I consider my "pedaguruvu"! It's unlike a typical interview with a film personality, and is more about the person that changed the face of poetry and popularized social awareness among literateurs than about the contribution of either of the couple to films. (Readers may also note that Smt. Saroja SreeSree was SreeSree's assistant initially in the Writing Department for films and later wrote for several films with him and by herself too. She was an accomplished dialogue writer, dubbing director, and music director!) The excerpts of the same are presented here exclusively to readers of TeluguCinema.Com as a way of commemorating the centennial-celebrating writer.

NaChaKi: You'd written a book about your life with SreeSree gaaru (titled samsaaramlO SreeSree) in three parts. I know it's not easy to summarize 900 pages into a few lines, can you tell us the same in three sentences, as a gist for those who did not read them? This could also present your background to our readers.
Saroja SreeSree: I am surprised that you asked it, after you said you read the books! ...I had written the books literally from the beginning of my life, and then about coming to Madras for my education, completing my studies as music vidwaan, joining SreeSree gaaru as an assistant directly, working with him for 150 films. During that time itself, he trained me and gave me a special place not only as a dialogue writer, but also as a dubbing director and music director too. And later, I married him. We have four children, all married - Manjula, who is an IAS officer; Mangala, an MBA; Venkataramana, named after SreeSree's father Venkataramanayya gaaru and called "Baiju" at home has done his MA in India and completed several degrees later, including an MBA, and is now working as a Manager at Pfizer in Groton, CT (USA); Mala, a lawyer for both Tamilnadu High Court and for Pondicherry government.

NaChaKi: Towards the end of the third part of the book, you'd written that moviemakers seemed to have thought that your career as a film writer also ended with SreeSree and that no one contacted you ever after...
Saroja SreeSree: It's not anyone's fault really. I retired from the field even while SreeSree gaaru was alive, leaving the writing job to him so that I can take care of the family more...

NaChaKi: Oh, I thought you wanted to continue...
Saroja SreeSree: If I want to, I do have offers even now, but I don't like to. I am already old too.

NaChaKi: What's age got to do when you have the talent, anDii!...
Saroja SreeSree: That's true, but I didn't somehow want to concentrate on getting into the field again...

NaChaKi: Most dubbed films back then were from Tamil, but now Hindi and English films are being dubbed somewhat regularly. Do you see yourself interested still?
Saroja SreeSree: Today, the industry wasn't like it was. There are numerous production houses, directors, and projects too, yes! It would only be appropriate if I work for a renowned [production] company, both to them and to me. ...All one needs is a project with some name tagged to it, such as a Rajnikant's film, to get a break.

NaChaKi: Do you follow today's dubbed films? What do you think of the dubbing quality?
Saroja SreeSree: (Smiles) Oh please, this is not a question you should've asked me! I've worked for 150 films with SreeSree gaaru . The respect towards artistes and crew, the discipline, etc. aren't seen much these days. That was mostly the reason for me to retire, as a matter of fact! Dubbing films is now in such a sad state that artistes are ready to work for a sambar or idly parcel! Thus, I'd not even compare with those days! I don't mind admitting that you can find people ready to write for dubbing films even for Rs. 1,116/- or even a ticket at Geeta Cafe! Particularly, when SreeSree gaaru was there... such times and respect wouldn't come again!

NaChaKi: SreeSree, who had a lot of command over the sounding of words to an extent of being called Sabda brahma , maintained a table of corresponding words for dubbing from Tamil to Telugu, you mentioned in your book, exemplifying with a short table of words. Do you think such care is seen in today's dubbed films in terms of language, meaning, and lip synchronization?
Saroja SreeSree: No, no, that wasn't the case. He's titled "akshara lakshaadhipati", "maaTala kOTeeSwaruDu"! I could write a book for each of your questions really! SreeSree was the pioneer of dubbing films. [The first dubbing film in Telugu, Aahuti of 1950, was also the debut film for SreeSree as a lyricist. - Ed.] Commemorating such a veteran, there's even a Dubbing Artistes Colony named after SreeSree near Kodambakkam in Chennai! Messrs Savitri, Bhanumati, SVR, Ramana Reddy, Jaggayya, Padmanabham, Rajababu, etc. worked with him...

NaChaKi: As I speak to you, I notice an interesting phenomenon: anuvaada brahma Rajasri gaaru and his son Sudhakar, Vennelakanti [Rajeswara Rao] gaaru and his son Shashank, and even you and SreeSree gaaru were from the same family. Do you think there's a reason for dubbing being a "family profession", or is it just too coincidental?
Saroja SreeSree: Rajasri gaaru always wrote very well, and definitely deserved to be referred to as "next to SreeSree" as a dubbing film writer! But, I wouldn't agree that SreeSree's was a profession. No poet was well-off financially, you know that too, and SreeSree was no exception. In the beginning, he accepted dubbing films solely to make ends meet for his family, but later there were a deluge of dubbing films as his work got recognition naturally! SreeSree was the only dubbing film writer to have a remuneration of up to Rs. 20,000/- back then, starting his career at Rs, 5,000/-. Since he had a large family, and these dubbing films were coming to him by themselves, and since I was also of help to him, writing for dubbing films helped us meet our family needs. It was only because they came by themselves that he chose to write for dubbing films but the films he worked were hits, running for 10 weeks or even 100 days! Thus, it's not really a profession that he "took up". I can say this because I used to accompany him to song recordings even for straight films... [which was more like what his profession in films was].

NaChaKi: Now that you mention songs, what do you think is tougher - dubbing songs or dubbing dialogues?
Saroja SreeSree: We had certain "tracks" for dubbing, and you know SreeSree - lip synchronization is perfect to the last syllable! With experienced singers like S.P.B. or P. Susheela, a song would be recorded in half an hour! But, the situation with dialogues is much different. Films like Madurai Veeran, Nadodi Mannan, and Chakravarti Thirumagan were lengthy films. We have to cut the dialogue tracks into loops, and lengthy films can have 200-250 loops. You can guess which is tougher.

NaChaKi: Usually people think dubbing songs is difficult than dialogues...
Saroja SreeSree: In fact, if you refer to writing, songs are tougher to write with the lip synchronization having same meaning, but SreeSree was excellent there! Being the first dubbing writer, he's like a guru for all those who wrote and who's currently writing for dubbing films!

NaChaKi: You brought out a series of books on SreeSree paaTalu. Do you also plan bringing out his dialogues for dubbing/straight films?
Saroja SreeSree: I do have ideas, but there's a lot of work to do. Seven books [of songs] are released till now. The first two titles were chosen by him - "paaDavOyi bhaarateeyuDaa!" and "teluguveera, lEvaraa!" - but he passed away before the project was finished. I completed them, and compiled the next five myself - "aruNa pataakam", "ukku piDikili", "khabaDdaar, sanghaSatruvulaaraa! ", "viSaalaandhralO prajaaraajyam" ...well, well, there are at least ten more books that I could compile really! ...I do have all the content in my mind, but I need to put it on paper. ...Many readers want to read of SreeSree's life and works but not all can afford to buy and read all the books available in the market. Thus, I am right now compiling a 150-page content including brief history of his life together with excerpts of his exemplary works, and other trivia that he compiled, with titles such as "SreeSree uvaacha", "SreeSree nuDi", "SreeSree Jokes", "SreeSree saametalu" and so on.

NaChaKi: Some works of SreeSree, which are part of SreeSree saahitii sarvasvam, Dr. Miriyala Ramakrishna's Ph.D. thesis on SreeSree's works, etc. are not available in the market of late. Are you pushing the idea of reprinting such books or making them available through the official website run by your son Sreerangam Venkataramana, www.mahakavisrisri.com ?
Saroja SreeSree: I am not connected to other publications and books. However, my son was also reminding me of the same thing - to take even a copy of this interview from you in order to publish it in the website. My son plans to update the website considerably...