Actor Ravi Verma and producer Ravi Vallabhaneni share their debut film -
Vennela. Since we had contacts with both of them, we asked Ravi Verma to interview Ravi Vallabhaneni for TeluguCinema.Com exclusively, as the latter rides high on the success of his second film,
Prasthanam. The actor readily agreed for this different kind of website interview, and here it is for our readers:
Ravi Verma: First, congratulations on the success of
Prasthanam..
Ravi Vallabhaneni: Thank you!
Ravi Verma: To my knowledge, you do not have a filmy background...
Ravi Vallabhaneni: True, I came from agricultural background. From the childhood, I used to watch a lot of movies in the touring talkies at our village and even wrote some stories when I was going to school. In college, our circle of friends used to watch movies and even discuss together the movies' potential at the box-office,
etc. My guesstimates would be nearly always right on spot for commercial films. My interest to write plays for stage performances in school continued into college. When I studied at Nagpur, my plays got noticed by the local Telugu Associations and groups and we won some prizes too...
Ravi Verma: Usually, people want to be on the screen and not behind the scene...
Ravi Vallabhaneni: Though I wrote plays, I was never on the stage as an actor. I'd rather leave it to the right people, I guess! (laughs)
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| Actor Ravi Verma |
Ravi Verma: How did you know Deva Katta and what made you to produce the film with him?
Ravi Vallabhaneni: As most of my classmates are here [in Detroit], we used to meet often on weekends and used to discuss about films and also wanted to make a film but it never materialized due to some reasons. Then, Deva was introduced to me by a common friend. Before we met Deva did a telefilm called
Valasa. That showed his spark and I thought he had good, creative thoughts. Soon, we used to discuss about his scripts and ...
Vennela shaped up thus!
Ravi Verma: Why did you want to do the film in the USA instead of India like everyone?
Ravi Vallabhaneni: In fact, our original idea was to do it in India, but later we moved the scene to the USA in order to have wider scope and a fresh look to the movie.
Ravi Verma: Neither of you had experience in film-making. So then how did you plan the movie, and that too in the USA?
Ravi Vallabhaneni: Once you start doing, then you know things. That's how we learned a lot of things when we are doing the film
Vennela.
