Nagaraj Goud
In the business for the past four decades, ace producer Suresh Babu has never been this busy. While he is presently awaiting the release of his much-talked about production venture ‘Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi,’ directed by Tharun Bhascker, he is gearing up to partner with People Media Factory for Venkatesh’s next with Bobby, ‘Venky Mama’ (tentative title). The project will have a formal launch ceremony in the next five-ten days. “We might go to sets in July-end or August. There are certain issues with Naga Chaitanya’s dates and once we have a clarity from his end, we can prepare a schedule chart,” Babu, the chief of the famed Suresh Productions, shares, going on to add that he’ll also be producing a couple of small films—Ravikanth Perepu’s next and debutant director Mahendra’s ‘Dorasani.’ “The latter is a Telangana-set love story. I’ve agreed in-principle to fund it along with another producer. Mahendra has been working on the script for the past six months.”
The association with People Media Factory is for another two-three films, Babu admits. “The point is if I have an exciting script, I’ll be asking them to listen to it and if they like it, let us jointly take it to sets. Likewise, they have the same liberty with me too. I’ve also green-lit Teja’s script but asked Anil Sunkara to come on board,” he informs, cautioning that he cannot do everything by himself and so, requires support. “Also, the industry hasn’t created enough project executives to complete a project. We have to execute ourselves, only then we will be able to train the next generation. In the process, I’ll also get taught because I’m not aware of many things.”
Citing an example, he continues, “When I worked with SS Rajamouli for ‘Eega’, I got to know a lot about visual effects. Although I did some effects for ‘Bobbili Raja’ way back, I couldn’t pursue it like the way Rajamouli has gone about it since the starting of ‘Chhatrapati’ and is continuing to do so. We are doing ‘Hiranya’ with Rana (directed by Gunasekhar). It’s a big project and it’s been 18 months since it took off—on a computer. It’s going on and on as it involves a lot of FX. We want to make it on an international level. Hollywood has cracked the process of making FX-driven films in a stipulated time. We have to learn from them, for a better industry. They too initially took three years to make such films but now they are doing them in 10 months. Financial aspects aside, I’m passionate about upping the standards as much as I can.”
