Star Interviews
Interview with Tirupathi Reddy
By Sri
Oct 8, 2008 - 1:22:02 AM

M.Tirupati Reddy

The film Khaidi has a special place among Telugu movies - among other sensations, the most important one is that it gave star status to Chiranjeevi. It is the film which gave him a huge mass following and crossed one crore collections for the first time in his carrer. The film was released 25 years back but is talked of even today! I got hold of the producer of the movie, Dr. Medarametla Tirupathi Reddy, at his residence one evening and spoke to him over the phone about Khaidi and other films that he produced. Excerpts of the telephonic interview are presented exclusively for visitors of TeluguCinema.Com:

Sri: What brought you to films?
M. Tirupathi Reddy: I am from Nellore, basically a doctor by profession but also had a finance business. In order to expand our business and also for education of my children, I moved to Madras. There, I started film finance called under the name Tirupathi Finance and financed for many films during the period 1979-'83.

Sri: So, how did you become a producer?
M. Tirupathi Reddy: I financed some films of Kondadarami Reddy and also Chiranjeevi. As Kodandarami Reddy is also from Nellore, I thought of doing a film with him. The film Abhilasha was a good hit at that time. So I thought that the combination of Chiranjeevi and Kondadarami Reddy will click, and I thus gave advance to both of them for the film.

Sri: Any particular reason to choose your banner's name as Samyuktha?
M. Tirupathi Reddy: When I decided to produce a film, a couple of other friends wanted to join with me as producers. They said they will just invest the money and I need to look after other things. I agreed and that is how Sudhakar, Dhanunjaya, etc. came into picture. I thought of naming the banner in such a way that it suggests about several producers coming together to make a movie. I considered the name United Producers but I still wanted to choose a Telugu name which hints about the group of producers. Thus, the name Samyuktha (meaning "joined together") came up for the banner.

Sri: Tell me your involvement in the movie.
M. Tirupathi Reddy: (Laughs) My involvement was there from the beginning in the movie, anDii! It was me who suggested the name of the film too, in fact! Initially, we thought of doing a film based on a story given by a Tamil writer, but then I saw the film First Blood and I liked it so much that I wanted to adapt the story somwhow. I gave the film's videocassette to Paruchuri Brothers and asked them to develop a story based on the initial scenes in the films. The writer brothers came up with the basic story line and after the first schedule, the flashback episodes were all developed to give the project its final shape!

Sri: Chiranjeevi, Radhika, and Kondadarami Reddy were a hit team at that time ( Nyaayam Kaavaali- 1981, Kiraayi Rowdy-lu - 1981, Prema Picchollu - 1983, Abhilasha - 1983, Sivudu Sivudu Sivudu - 1983), though a couple of these films were flops. What made you to choose Madhavi as the heroine in your film?
M. Tirupathi Reddy: It was a good combination, alright, but I felt it was already used too many times! And, I felt Madhavi to be the right choice for the role. She is a great artiste and also gave many hits with Chiranjeevi like Kothalarayudu, Intlo Ramayya-Veedhilo Krishnayya, etc.

Sri: It's always heard that Chiranjeevi and Madhavi do not stand each other and that they were never in talking terms like other heroes and heroines. Didn't you have any problems because of this?
M. Tirupathi Reddy: No, both are very professional artistes and have a good screen chemistry! Madhavi is good on screen with him, which is the most important thing, and she never behaved in any manner that would affect the film in a negative sense. She always used to be on time and behaved perfectly well-mannered and completed her shot always in the first take!  

Sri: What was the budget for the film?
M. Tirupathi Reddy: As it was our first film, we did not want to compromise on the cost just for the sake of it - we invested what is required for the movie. We made the film in about 25 lakh rupees! ...And, I sold it at the same rate, and thus this was a no-loss-no-gain venture for me in the first run...

Sri: I thought it was the first film for Chiranjeevi that collected over 1 crore rupees! How come you say it's just break-even?
M. Tirupathi Reddy: It's true that the film collected more than one crore rupees in the first run! In fact, it collected almost 47 lakhs in the first week itself! But, the thing here is that we sold the film off even before we completed it - we got our buyers right when we announced the film! And, we just sold it off at 25 lakh rupees!   

Sri: The rights for movies will be sold after every five years, I believe, which means that you might have got more money when you sold the film for its second third release!
M. Tirupathi Reddy: Of course, yeah, we sold the rights again a couple of times, once every five years like you said. We got more than 20 lakh rupees in each run that followed! So, it's true that we made money much later than the first run.

Sri: And, you possibly got a decent sum of money for remake rights that you sold to Hindi and Kannada movie markets...
M. Tirupathi Reddy: Yes, but that was a time when remake rights didn't account to much money! That money we got was enough to cover the expenses for celebrating the 100-day run of Khaidi.

Sri: So, the film was a huge hit, but you didn't gain much on it in the first run, is it?
M. Tirupathi Reddy: Financially, I didn't gain much, but we got a huge name with the film, which in turn helped us do the second film Maha Sangramam on a very big scale. The film created a record of getting sold for a record price of one crore rupees even before we started the movie! For this film too, the basic story idea was mine and Paruchuri brothers worked on the story development. The film was not a such a huge hit though. The film had a little expensive budget - 80-85 lakh rupees - at that time, as it had huge star cast. (The film was delayed due to censor problems and some important scenes were chopped off, which impacted the film's run at BO.)

Sri: How much did you pay for the stars for that movie?
M. Tirupathi Reddy: Krishna and Sobhan Babu were paid equally - about seven lakhs each, while Jayasudha and Jayaprada were paid around four lakhs each, about the same amount to each one.

Sri: With the team of Khaidi, you again planned the movie Veta, which was nothing but a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo...
M. Tirupathi Reddy: True, we thought the magic of Khaidi will work out and repeated the same team. As I said earlier, it was me who gave the basic story idea for all my films. I liked the story of The Count of Monte Cristo  and asked them to adapt it to the current situations. The writers however felt that pre-independence era will suit the theme better. It didn't worked out anyway. People were not able to digest that the heroine gets married to someone else and is still in love with the hero, etc. All such aspects worked as negatives for the film, and it was a flop eventually!

Sri: Don't you feel that the casting is also another minus for the film? If you were planning to do the film with the same team, why was Madhavi not repeated?
M. Tirupathi Reddy: (Pauses hesitantly) That's not my decision, and I do not want to talk about it on the record!

Sri: Well, okay! And, what went wrong with the Vijetha Vikram?
M. Tirupathi Reddy:   Since both my ideas Maha Sangramam and Veta didn't work out, I thought I'd leave the story to the director this time. The story idea that was told to me was exciting enough, and I agreed, but the outcome was entirely different, as I was not involved much in the movie. The result showed at the BO too.

Sri: I think you did a Hindi film too, right?
M. Tirupathi Reddy: Yeah, I remade a Malayalam movie in Hindi with Jithendra (whose Telugu version was Anthima Theerpu by Joshi). The film, titled New Delhi, was a good hit and was also selected for the Moscow Film Festival. I even went to attend the fest at Tashkent on invitation from the Russian government.

Sri: I think Sumalatha was one artist who worked in all the three languages of the film - Malayalam, Telugu, and Hindi versions...
M. Tirupathi Reddy: Yes, she did all the three versions, and the film was a big hit in all the languages. (The film is a free-make of a Sidney Sheldon's novel in English.)

Sri: You made so many big-budgeted movies back then. How come you didn't do any more films after that?
M. Tirupathi Reddy: You can say I turned wise (laughs)! When I was doing the film Khaidi, I had the enthusiasm and risk-taking attitude. The whole team that worked for the film had time to spend with us to discuss the story and were ready to do something new. After Khaidi, it was not the case anymore - all of the cast and technicians became stars by then and it clearly showed in the subsequent projects. They did not have the time or patience like in the past. For example, we exposed 40 rolls of film and shot for 40 days for the film Khaidi but the same team took 100 rolls of film and more than 100 working days for Veta. Also, the budget for each movie kept on increasing and the respect given to the producer kept on decreasing each day. Seeing all these changes, I was not happy about being in the field anymore! I did not also want my children to get attracted to the field, and I completely stopped any dealings with movie people and started concentrating on the business.

Sri: What are you doing now?
M. Tirupathi Reddy: Like I said, I am doctor, and I am still one. We have a real estate business too. My son Sunil and I look after that. I have a daughter who's happily married.

Interview: Sri
Edited by: NaChaKi