Sri: How come Nagayya
gaaru was not in Vijaya or Vauhini films after the initial projects like
Yogi Vemana,
Bhakta Pothana,
etc.?
Singeetam:
At that time, people only saw if the character suits the artiste or not. For example, when
Srikrishnarjuna Yuddhamu was started, the film industry was entirely shocked as Relangi was not in the film! They wondered how Reddy
gaaru can ever make a film without Relangi, who was the top comedian then and played good roles in all the movies of top heroes. One day finally, Relangi himself came to the sets and asked Reddy
gaaru, expressing that it was injustice to have not offered a role to him. Reddy
gaaru only said that he should come see the film after its release. When he saw the premiere on our invitation, he realized that Allu Ramalingaiah's role suited only him amd not Relangi and Reddy
gaaru gave preference to only to character suitability. Similarly, movies like
Mayabazar didn't offer any scope for good roles to accommodate artistes like Nagayya
gaaru. He did act as Akrura in
Srikrishnarjuna Yuddhamu. As you can see now, artistes were chosen only when the character suited the artiste, without wasting artistes' talent by choosing them namesake like they do these days.
Sri: Apart from working with K.V. Reddy
gaaru, didn't you even work with Pattabhi
gaaru for the movie
Samskaara?
Singeetam:
Yes, I was the executive director for that film. I became a close friend to Late Pattabhirami Reddy, as I was an assistant director for two films
Pellinaati Pramanaalu and
Srikrishnarjuna Yuddhamu, for which he was associative producer. His wife Late Snehalatha Reddy
gaaru, liked this story written by the English professor U.R. Ananthaswamy, and showed to us. We discussed and planned to make the film. As Pattabhirami Reddy
gaaru offered to be the producer and director and since he didnt have directorial experience, he asked me to be the executive director. Girish Karnad, a graduate from Oxford, played the main role. The cameraman Tom Cowan and the editor Steven Cartaw were from Australia, and the music director Rajiv Taranath was an English professsor by profession, who had spent six years learning the
sarod from the legendary Ali Akbar Khan. The film was a national award winner and stayed as a landmark in Kannada films.
Sri: Tell me about the film
Neeti-Nijaayiti, your directorial debut film in Telugu, or should I call it the "official" debut?
Singeetam:
As we succeeded in Kannada, I thought of experimenting the same in Telugu. The film did win critical acclaim but was a disaster at the BO.
Sri: Though this film was a disaster, you made yet another art film in Tamil, in the form of
Dikkatra Parvathi?
Singeetam:
No one came forward to make a film with me after my flopped debut, and I thus wanted to make a different film to prove myself. I thus went to a 95-year old Rajaji
gaaru to seek permission to make a film based on his story. The general notion those days was that Rajaji hated films. So, when I met him, I told him that I wanted to make a film out of a story written by somebody who hated films. into a film. He snapped in reply, "Who said I hate films? I only hate bad films!'' and gladly gave me written permission to make my film a memorable moment it was for the budding director I then was. This note written to me as a permission letter was the last document he signed; he passed away days after this happened. This film too was a national award for me.
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Seeing this film, Navata Krishnamraju
gaaru approached me to direct a film based on the Hindi film
Sheeshmahal (1950) by Shrobmodi (who also played the role of a zamindar in the film. We booked artistes like S.V. Rangarao
gaaru, Sarada, Ranganath, etc. for the movie and completed the first schedule too, but S.V. Rangarao
gaaru expired suddenly, and we thus had to re-shoot his scenes with Gummadi
gaaru. The film was a good hit and ran for 100 days, thus marking my first 100-day film. (The film had super hit songs like
mOgindi veeNa... and the comedy number
Mangamma, nuvvu utukutunTE andam!)
Sri: Later too, you made musical hits like
America Ammaayi,
Panthulamma,
etc. with Navata Krishnamraju
gaaru. Tell me interesting things that come to your mind about these films.
Singeetam:
Navata Krishnamraju
gaaru wanted to take a photograph with the lead artiste and the director at the beginning of the film, i.e. with me and himself on either side of SVR
gaaru, but like I said, SVR
gaaru was no more before the movie completed. For
America Ammaayi, we chose a French lady who was learning her dance in Kalakshetra. Again, we took another photograph with her when the movie started. This time, after the first schedule was completed, she left to France without informing us, as her visa came to an end, leaving us in a shock. We then had to re-shoot the scenes again with another lead lady! When
Panthulamma started, Krishnamraju
gaaru again wanted to have a photo with the movie's lead artiste Lakshmi. After we informed her of the past two incidents, she found excuses to avoid the photograph even after the film was released (laughs).
Sri: I heard that
Panthulamma got an A certificate and was not a big hit during its first release?
Singeetam:
True! The film got an A certificate and was only an average fare at the BO, but when it was released the second time, it was a good hit.
Raju-Rani-Jackie was the only flop on that banner.
Sri: I think you made most of your films with Kamal Hasan, starting with
Sommokadidi-Sokokadidi,
Amavasya Chandrudu,
Pushpak,
Michael Madana Kamaraju,
Vichitra Sodarulu, em>Navvandi... Love-andi!,
Mumbai Express, and each one was different from the other. Tell me your association with him?
Singeetam:
We met the first time during the Filmfare awards event. I went to collect my award for
Dikkatra Parvathi and he came to collect the best award for a Malayalam film that he worked for. We both instantly knew that we wanted to experiment with different kinds of films, and we wanted to work that way. However, when a producer approached us to make a film with both of us, he wanted a conventional kind of film and we thus ended up doing
Sommokadidi-Sokokadidi, which was a good hit anyway. Kamal then started his own banner Rajkamal Films and asked me to direct a film for him, and thus
Rajaparvai (
Amavasya Chandrudu) happened. As its theme was kind of ahead of its times, the film was a flop, but it got a lot of critical acclaim and is looked at as a classic film at last!
Sri: What made you to do the mookie film
Pushpak Vimaanam?
Singeetam:
One day, while taking the shower, I suddenly got an idea to make a silent film - in the age of DTS - and I worked on the theme, but no one came forward to produce it. Finally, a new producer was ready to do it, and the film was made under the banner Mandakini Chitra. One potentiality we saw in that was that it could be released in any language (laughs), and of course, you know that it worked out right! In fact, it was rated as one of the best 25 Indian films ever released and was also enlisted as one of the 100 best films of the world by the magazine "Gentleman" in the issue dated August 09, 1998.
Sri: Kamal is famous for his moustache before that film. Why did you get it shaved off for the film?
Singeetam:
Kamal was already quite famous as a lover boy with his moustache. For the boy-next-door image for the character of an unemployed youth, we took off his famous moustache (laughs)!
Sri: You never revealed the secret of
Vichitra Sodarulu!
Singeetam:
It's no longer a secret if I reveal it (laughs)! Kamal really worked so hard on that role. Oh, well, maybe I'll tell it off (smiles)! We made special shoes for him in the film to fit his knees; his legs were tied behind most of the time and he was on the knees. When he was on the ground, we dug a pit and buried him half way in the ground. We have not used top shots, we used to shoot from pits to make him look more shorter... And, yeah, for the song
bujji peLLikoDukki..., we made special legs with a machine attached to them, got the setup fixed to a sofa, ...the complete answer would itself make a book; I anyway revealed the major techniques we used.
Sri: You both were a good team, and the project
Bhamane... Satyabhamane! was announced to be made under your direction. Yet, your name was dropped later. What brought in the change?
Singeetam:
After I gave a successful film to Rajendra Prasad in the form of
Madam, Kamal also wanted to do a similar role, and we thus planned the film. However, Rajendra Prasad's role fights for women's rights in
Madam, while Kamal's project was purely family-oriented. Eventually, I felt that it'd get repetitive and there was not a social element in the film either, la
Madam, and I thus came out of the project.
Sri: Both these movies were inspired by Hollywood flicks, anyway!
Singeetam:
True, it was a combination of
Tootsie,
Some like it hot,
Mrs. Doubtfire,
etc. all blended into one.
Sri: You did try your hand at directing a film in Malayalam, but you never continued working there for more films. Did you not like working there or what?
Singeetam:
Oh, no, Malayalam film industry is the best film industry, have no doubt about it! When Nahta wanted to remake my film
Oka Deepam Veligindi in Malayalam, we had top stars like Sheila and Omar as the lead pair. Usually, we have an eight-hour call-sheet. When I asked about shifts, they said that the Malayalam film industry was small and that they usually work from morning to evening and not in shifts like we do, and I thus asked for shooting from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The first day, I went to the sets at 6:45 a.m. expecting the artistes to come around 7 a.m. or later.
To my surprise, the production manager said that all the artistes already had their makeup done and were just waiting for me to come in! Not only that, but they also memorized the script before coming to the sets too! Such is the dedication of any Malayalam artiste in general ...I still remember it! I have not done more Malayalam films, true, but films like
Panthulamma,
Pushpak,
Vichitra Sodarulu,
etc. were dubbed in Malayalam.
