Sri: I think your next two films - Maavichiguru and Egire Paavuramaa! - are good hits. While Maavichiguru is a free-make of Premabhishekam, Egire Paavuramaa! was a remake from Malayalam.
Ravikishore: (laughs) I agree it is a freemake, but we took only one single point and developed a heart-touching story in Maavichiguru. Egire Paavuramaa! was also a big hit though it was a remake; we made a lot of changes to suit our nativity.
Sri: I remember you conducted competitions in making brinjal curry to promote Egire Paavuramaa!
Ravikishore: (Laughs) The song aahaa, Emi ruchi!... became quite popular and we thought of the competitions! When we announced the competition, we got more than 7500 applications in a week, just in Shanti theatre alone! The idea was a huge hit, like the movie itself!
Sri: Gillikajjalu and Manasulo Maata were average and flop, I think, respectively...
Ravikishore: Gillikajjalu was a hit while Manasulo Maata was a casting failure, like we spoke earlier. Then came Pilla Nacchindi...
Sri: I remember Kota saying "Cinema chacchindi!"...
Ravikishore: That was an average film, anDii, not a flop! Distributors made money...
Sri: But you were literally left without money at that time, I heard. How does that happen? Your success rate is more than seventy percent at any given time. With the remaining thirty percent being average to flop, how can one become bankrupt, I do not understand! As an example, I did hear that Devivaraprasad became bankrupt after giving Mrugaraju, though his Gharana Mogudu created history...!
Ravikishore: That's because of a lot of reasons. Previously, there used to be distribution system, according to which we get, from the distributors, only 20% of what we earned, and nothing sometimes! The rates of interest in this industry are sky-high, something that you'd have never heard off! Thus, my interest rates and the compounding for flops or average films piled up and become gigantic in proportion, eating away my 70% profits!
Sri: I know you worked with Ushakiron Movies for Nuvve Kaavaali. Tell me in detail about it.
Ravikishore: As I was unable to do a film on my own, and I have the remake rights of the film Nuvve Kaavaali, I approached Ramoji Rao gaaru with the subject. Ramoji Rao gaaru already offered me once to do a film, and so he asked me if I was confident about the subject. I said I am pretty comfortable with the script, and he asked me to go ahead with the project. I worked for 10 lakhs per month and for 20 percent profits on the film. The film was made with 1.2 crore rupees made around 24 crore rupees at that time!
Sri: Even the audio itself was a super hit! I heard they sold along with their newspapers also!
Ravikishore: CDs were not still commonplace in the market then. The audio was really a big hit, yeah!
Sri: Vidyasagar said that a couple of his tunes (from the Malayalam original) were used. You also used Ilayaraja's composition for the film.
Ravikishore: When we got the rights, we bought alongwith the original soundtrack as well as the music track of the film. So, Vidyasagar cannot complain on that! For the song kaLLallOki kaLLu peTTi chooDavenduku!..., it was me who asked Koti gaaru to use the tune from Maharshi, maaTa raani mounamidi..., because I like that tune very much.
Sri: Coming to the current film Ready, why did you take almost three years to do a film with Ram, though he's your brother's son!
Ravikishore: True, Ram is my brother Murali's son. I was supposed to do his first film, but as Y.V.S. Chowdary approached to do the film, I agreed, as it'd be good to do for an outside banner first as a launch pad. I had good confidence on Y.V.S. as a producer and director, and so I agreed. Then, Sukumar came with Jagadam. Though the film did not work well at the box-office, everyone appreciated Ram and the music. That's, in fact, one reason why we got DeviSri for Ready.
Sri: What is the other reason then? I mean, you had Koti gaaru as a regular, after Ilayaraja gaaru...
Ravikishore: Another reason is Srinu Vytla. Srinu had been very much associated with DeviSri from the very beginning of his career. In fact, almost all the other techincians too were his choice. I always go with the director's comfortability with other techincians, which will help the product shape well.
Sri: This film is definitely not a typical "Sravanthi"-style project...
Ravikishore: It's nothing like that! The film can be viewed with the entire family without any hesitation, like any other Sravanthi film. I somehow feel that I am making films for me and not for the audiences. I wanted to change it with this film too!
