Kona Venkat: After Baachi's flop, everyone thought that Badri was hit as it was ghost-directed by Pawan and not by Puri. So, in order to survive, he did the Kannada version of Thammudu with Shivaraj Kumar, which turned out to be a big hit and he became close to the Rajkumar family. They offered to lauch Puneet Rajkumar, and that is Appu, which was later remade in Telugu as Idiot. He was also doing Itlu... Sravani, Subrahmanyam at the same time; both the films became hits and he established himself! At that time, he asked me to work on a person's life story whom we both like.

It is the story of a person who wants to go away from his family for sometime to concentrate on his passion. That story became Amma, Nanna, O Tamil Ammayi. At the same time, Rasool started Okariki Okaru with my story. Both of these films were good hits, really! S. Gopal Reddy gaaru saw the script of Okariki Okaru, liked it instantly, and offered me Ninne Ishtapaddaanu..!. Thus started my journey into the film world.

Sri: You were not into Puri's camp for long...

Kona Venkat: Right, but though I am not in the camp of Ramu or Puri, I am a close friend to them all (smiles).