Sri: What made you turn a producer when you were a chartered accountant by profession?

Ravikishore: Because of friends like Vemuri Satyanarayana, Thammudu Satyam, and Saibaba, I thought of producing films. Initially when I started, I just thought of doing it as a pure business, but once the film was completed, I was bound by the Cinema. The people I worked with became so close to me ...and it became a passion after that. The film was a big success - it was nothing but Ladies Tailor (1986).

Sri: Is it a remake of a Marathi film?

Ravikishore: No, actually they bought the rights of and they remade it! Our basic plot was to make a film around beliefs in astrology, etc. So this was shaped thus and then it was Bharani's idea to call the mole as jamajaccha in order to make it not vulgar (laughs)!

Sri: I thought someone approached to make it in Hindi too. How come it didn't work out?

Ravikishore: It was made recently, but it flopped. That's because of the nativity factor that was not considered rightly. It was probably for the same reason that the Tamil version (dubbed by G.V. Films, Mani Ratnam's brother's banner) was an average fare too!

Sri: What made you take up dubbing films into Telugu, after doing a straight film first?!

Ravikishore: I am a great fan of Balu Mahendra and Mani Ratnam, and both their films are good! So, I dubbed Rettai Vaal Kuruvi (1987) and dubbed it in Telugu as Rendu Thokala Pitta. The film, released in Sudarshan 35 mm, was a success. Later, I dubbed Nayagan as Nayakudu and released in Sandhya 35 mm. Both these films made good profits to me as well as the distributors. Then, we dubbed Pushpak and released it at the same time. All these film are good hits and the banner became popular because of that.

Sri: I know your banner was named after Malladi Venkata Krishnamurthy's novel that you liked very much. Did you ever think of making it a film? Did you meet Malladi ever?

Ravikishore: Yes, I did meet Malladi gaaru long after we started making movies. The film may not work out in the current trend. It could be made as a TV serial, but I do not have that much patience. As a producer, I always wanted 100 percent of my involvement with the project. If I cannot dedicae myself completely to it, I'd rather not make them.

Sri: What went wrong with Maharshi? Hearsay was that you gave publicity that it is the real love story of Vamsy but later contradicted the statement...

Ravikishore:That's absolutely wrong! Vamsy gaaru has nothing to do with the story. The story was developed by Bharani gaaru and us. It's based on the Hollywood film City Killer. The original star cast we planned were Revathi, Karthik, and Rajendra Prasad, and we even paid them the advance remunerations. Later, we did with Shanti Priya, Raghava, and Krishna Bhagawan. One reason for the film's fate was wrong casting. The songs were good hits, though!

Sri: Even Manasulo Maata flopped because of wrong casting, I guess!

Ravikishore: True. Even today, I feel that it's one of the good films that flopped due to wrong casting. The film's initial talk was very good, but suddenly after two weeks, the film got a flop talk. ...I lost 1.5 crores on that project!

Sri: After Maharshi and Sree Kanakamahalakshmi Recording Dance Troupe, you did a remake Varasudocchaadu with Venkatesh, Suhasini, and Sridurga a.k.a Mala Sree...

Ravikishore: Mala Sree was not a big name at that time. It was after going to Kannada that she became Mala Sree. Varasudocchaadu was a remake of a Tamil film, and was a decent hit in Telugu too. We just took the main theme and changed a lot in the original script. The introduction song of Mohan Babu, Columbus, etc. and the song on Sridurga and Sandhya were not in the original.

Sri: Though the film was a decent hit, I felt that Suhasini was a miscast in the film.

Ravikishore: Actually, Radha was supposed to that role. She even attended the muhurtam of the film. But, she got busy and was not able to adjust dates that we required, as our shooting was mostly in outdoor locations. Thus, Suhasini replaced Radha in the last minute.

Sri: After the dubbed film Sister Nandini that had good songs by Ilayaraja, your another dubbed film Chal Chal Gurram didn't run, I think!

Ravikishore: That film was a disaster, yeah! That is the first film of Mammootty that was dubbed into Telugu. It's a children's film but didn't even recover the print costs!

Sri: What went wrong with Chirutapululu a.k.a Jaitra Yatra?

Ravikishore: The film didn't do well because the hero runs into the forest instead of facing the situation. eppuDaitE hero samasyani edurkOkunDaa aDavullOki paaripOyaaDO appuDE cinema kooDaa aDavullOki veLLipOyindi!

Sri: What made you to choose S.P.B. for Jaitra Yatra, while Ilayaraja was your permanent music director until then?

Ravikishore: Actually, Uppalati also wanted Ilayaraja gaaru for the film. But Raja gaaru refused to work due to personal reasons. He actually took the advance for the film, but when he got to know that a debutant director was doing the film, he refused to work as he was upset with Ramu earlier for Shiva, as Ramu took Keeravani for the next film in spite of Shiva's super duper success. I requested him to do the BGM at least, but he declined. ...S.P.B. also did a very good job as the music director. The songs ennelammaa..., parugu teeyani..., okkaTai vacchaayi enDaa vaana... were good hit songs.

Sri: What went wrong with Rowdy Mogudu starring Mohan Babu?

Ravikishore: (Laughs) Everything! The film was a such a disaster tha I was almost bankrupt at that time. Only good thing I remember about that film had good music by Keeravani gaaru. I can say my second innings started with Balaramakrishnulu, a remake of Cheran Pandyan (Tamil). The film was a good hit. So, to bring Vamsy back ino direction, we made Lingababu Love Story. Shirts for that film were specially designed by artist Jayadev, based on the scene. Though the film has good comedy, it didn't work out for Vamsy or to us. The film was a flop.