Ramesh Verma made his debut as a director in 2005 itself. Even though he made couple of films before Rakshasudu movie they were all disasters. But Rakshasudu gave him much needed break and it seems now he’s planning to build his brand around this movie, details as follows.
Several flops before Rakshasudu:
Ramesh Verma’s debut movie in 2005 with Tarun and Saloni was a disaster. Later he directed movie Ride and that was an average movie in terms of box office. Yet he got another chance from Ravi Teja and he made movie Veera which was also a dud at the box office. After delivering a hat-trick of flops , another director would have gone home but not Ramesh Verma. He turned producer and produced a couple of movies but they also did not turn his career. It is Rakshasudu movie, which is a remake of Tamil thriller Raatsasan, that brought him on to the success track again. The movie is termed as one of the best thrillers in South India till date. It seems, because of this reason director Ramesh Verma is planning to build his brand with this movie.
Building a brand is a successful strategy for directors too
Building brand around one subject is not a new thing. Choreographer turned director Lawrence build his brand around Kanchana series. This movie opened eyes of several filmmakers about how profitable a horror comedy movie can be. With this, Tollywood has seen several horror comedy movies flooding the box office. Similarly director Omkar has built his brand around Raju Gari Gadhi movie series. After tasting hattrick success with this subject he’s planning to make more of Raju Gari Gadhi movies in future. Same way director Ramesh Verma is planning to come up with sequels for Rakshasudu movie.
Ramesh Verma Rakshasudu 2 versus Ram Kumar Raatsasan 2
However unlike other directors who built brands around their own subjects, Ramesh Verma he’s building his brand around a remake subject. As there is no official sequel yet for Rakshasudu movie in Tamil , director Ramesh Verma is now coming up with his own subject and naming it as Rakshasudu 2. As Bellamkonda Srinivas who acted in the movie Rakshasudu is not available, the director is planning to rope in other hero for this sequel.
Another twist in this episode is that the original director Ram Kumar is also contemplating to come up with a sequel for Ratsasan. Hero Vishnu Vishal has requested him to work on the sequel for this superhit thriller. But it may take some time and by that time, Ramesh Verma would have released his own version of the sequel in Telugu. Reportedly this has come up in the internal discussions and the director Verma said in a cool manner that, If Tamil director Ramkumar comes up with Rakshasan 2 in Tamil and if it becomes hit, he will direct it as Rakshasudu3 in Telugu. He is also confident that his original story for Rakshasudu 2 will also be a hit and it will be remade in Tamil as well.
Overall it seems a wise decision from director Ramesh Verma to brand himself around the subject, because by doing so – even if the film becomes an average grosser the director would be still remembered by the audience and they will have curiosity on his upcoming films. We need to wait and see whether this strategy of branding brings Ramesh Varma the much needed success or not.
