Dr D Ramanaidu - A legend among producers

D.Ramanaidu’s contribution to Indian Cinema in general and Telugu Film Industry in particular doesn’t end with his cremation. The man has played a major part in the evolution of films as a mass medium to growing their appeal and even profiting from their continuing appeal. On face value, the statistics of his achievements as a film producer are staggering: over 150 films in 15 languages including English, debut chances for 21 directors and a few music directors and several technicians. His life is an outstandanding example of how to choose a field you love and then grow in that field to dizzy heights and more importantly, stay relevant and be in the thick of action till the very end.  At the time of his passing, “Gopala Gopala” produced by his son is still running in theatres and a blockbuster called “Bahubali” is in production stages in which his grandson plays a pivotal role.The legacy created by Dr.D Ramanaidu is not just the negatives of those films or the studio but the values which are continuing with his sons Suresh and Venkatesh and his grandsons. His contribution and overall impact on the film industry is a nonpareil in the world of cinema.

He made epic films with superstars of the day, cast them in dual roles (“Ramudu Bheemudu”), made scripts out of top-notch novelists of the day (“Premnagar”, “Secretary”,”Jeevana Tarangalu”, “Agnipoolu”), created modern-day multi-starters with both heroes (Krishna, Sobhanbabu) and heroines (Jayaprada, Sridevi) and also several low-budget films once the budgets started soaring because of hero remunerations. He started productions in the name of his eldest son Suresh and created a decent-scale studio which allows film producers to walk out with the first copy of the film if they have a script in hand - it used to be the tagline in nineties itself before Ramoji Rao came and changed the mindset of thinking from small to big. Dr.Ramanaidu also remade his films into Hindi and created big hits which helped launch stars like Jitendra and gave a second lease to actors like Rajesh Khanna and Anil Kapoor. His model of film production is that he treated it like a sacred business where all the team members are treated well but expected to be professional. There were reports in trade weeklies of how Dr Ramanaidu used to return extra copies of video cassettes or prints to some distributors in north who didn’t budget correctly. Coming from agricultural background in Karamcheedu helped Naidu to count the pennies so that he won’t become a pound-foolish producer.

If you study the careers of the people who preceded Dr Ramannaidu, it appears Naidu learnt his lessons from them too. The most famous example is Dr Raghupati Venkayya - in whose name the most famous and prestigious award for contribution to Telugu Film Industry is given - an equivalent to Dada Saheb Phalke Award. Dr Raghupati Venkayya made the first talkie in Telugu and started a production company with his son R.Prakash. But where Dr Venkayya erred was in not entrusting the financial affairs of the studio to his son. Subsequently, Dr Venkayya’s company was mishandled due to staff ineptitude and financial mismanagement. His company ran into debt and Dr Venkayya became bankrupt. In many ways, Dr Ramanaidu’s life is a mirror reflection of the very opposite of what Dr Venkayya did; Dr Naidu gave his first son free rein in running the production house and the staff were treated well but with rewards for performance and stick for slippages. Which is why, when a few years back one of the foreign production houses came to Hyderabad to buy out Ramanaidu Studios, lock stock and barrel, the offer came to a staggering Rs.1400 crores. Dr Naidu shot down any proposal to sell the studios while he is still alive.

Dr Naidu may have well had a point in holding out. He has little reasons to sell - unlike Padmalaya Studios which had elephantine debt before selling to Zee or Annapurna Studios which had been constructed on land pre-leased from Government. Dr Naidu’s family has ensured that they are a formidable force not only in film production and post-production but also in distribution. Towards the end of the last decade before 2000, they have started cornering the exhibition trade after tasting blood in distribution and production. Lease Rentals were hiked by 200 per cent which allowed several hundreds of theatre-owners to become part of the distribution chain of Suresh Productions - this was soon to become a trend that made many distributors lament but it created an apple-pie of a fabulous business model that dictated the content that is exhibited for the last decade. Even the most talented film-makers had to seek the powerhouse distribution chain controlled by Dr Naidu’s family whether it is “Eega”, “Ashta Chamma”, “Uyyala Jhampala” or the upcoming “Bahubali”. Very few production houses in the country wield so much influence at the box-office as D.Ramanaidu’s family did. Which is why, offers will never cease to pour in. Ramanaidu’s son Suresh has not only consolidated the family business towards safety but also towards a stronghold status in the way the rentals prop up a revenue model which was not even funded by banks until a decade back. Today, even working capital finance is given to his company and a few other companies. Venkatesh, his second son, went on to become the producer’s son who remains always a producer’s hero - he belted many hits in his career, became a safe hero, helped deliver one-sixth of his career hits in his father’s production banner and helped create many multi-starrer movies. Venkatesh and Suresh together held the flag aloft and created the most successful film business family in South or North India. Only Yash Chopra films comes close to what Ramanaidu’s family achieves but Yash Chopra hardly made films in South.

Despite a cult status and a towering influence, Ramanaidu never shied from public service and his recognition as a TDP MLA is proof of his love for politics and achievements as the best Parliamentarian in 2003. Many swear by the support and moral strength given by Ramanaidu in their personal struggles and careers, for many Ramanaidus’ business acumen and discipline in fiscal affairs was a guide and pathfinder. Producers like VB Rajendra Prasad, Murali Mohan, Achi Reddy, KS Rama Rao, MS Raju, Dil Raju and now Bandla Ganesh sought his advice on making successful films and staying solvent - many listened but few benefited from Naidu’s sage counsel. But despite the many highs of Ramanaidu’s career and filmography, if one must objectively assess the man’s impact on Indian Cinema, there are few facets that glare out. By treating film business as much like any other business of trading/speculation/profiteering etc, Ramanaidu has been an exemplar of seeking risk-adjusted returns. So, we find that except for a few at the initial phase, mid-phase and some in the last decade of 90s, most of his films were forgettable hits which didn’t have the class appeal of some of the other producers and makers who made fewer than one tenth of the films that Ramanaidu made - like Murari, Krishnamraju, Krishna Reddy, Aswini Dutt, ANR, NTR, Bapu-Ramana, Edida Nageswara Rao, etc.). His films had the most formulaic content and represented a hackneyed mishmash of the hollowest content which also had the stigma of obscenity, truth be told. Except in occasional films when a classy actor like Kamal Hassan starred in “Indrudu Chandrudu” or a Suresh Krishna directed “Prema”, Naidu’s films after ANR and NTR era were lackadaisical and hardly classics. Loud dialogues, crazy stunts, socialistic and anachronistic themes and puerile songs with belly-dancing and hip-shaking item songs were the mainstay of his films - until son Suresh and Venkatesh changed most of that since they took centrestage. The films he re-made in Hindi with Jitendra, Rajesh Khanna and Anil Kapoor and even those with Venkatesh were intensely feudal and mascochist which merely perpetuated the male chauvinist appeal of the audiences. Towards the last decade, he virtually moved out of production scene and tried to salvage the catalogue value with arty films and message-oriented films. The last good film from his involvement was “Madhumaasam”. 

Despite the flaws which are natural in any film personality’s colossal career, Ramanaidu is a life that will be revered and respected as long as indian Cinema stands. The man gave us a volume of output that will remain forever unsurpassed; he made films as a career and as a business more lucrative than any other film-maker. He had a well-lived life, long enough to deeply impact Telugu film industry as it stands in Hyderabad today with wings spread strategically to wherever it can next re-locate or consolidate itself. Yes, there are regrets too - that he never bought more land than the sprawling acreage of Ramanaidu Studios where you get the best vantage view of the city, that he never directed a film, that he never made a multi-starrer with Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan, that he never got a superstar after Chiranjeevi to act, that he couldn’t make a remake of “Ramudu Bheemudu” with NTR Jr. The list may go on like a litany but the legacy he left is richer than what the unfinished business could have achieved. Respect, for Dr.Ramanaidu always. R.I.P

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"Drusyam" (Telugu) Film Review

"Drusyam" is an ambitious remake of the original Malayalam film by the same title - which hit national headlines with simultaneous bidding by leading film industries to reckon with - Bollywood, Tollywood, Sandalwood and Kollywood. With Ravi Chandran playing the role of Mohanlal in Kannada, Kamal Hasan in Tamil and Venkatesh in Telugu, expectations soared before the release. As usual, Telugu producers rushed to the fence in releasing the film. D.Suresh Babu backed Sripriya to direct the remake originally made by Jitu Joseph. Sripriya is that sizzling actress who starred in some unforgettable films of the 70s and 80s - "Anthuleni Katha" and "Vayasu Pilichindi".

The starcast is impressive - Venkatesh, Meena, Saptagiri, Kruttika, Ravi Kale, Nadiya and Naresh - and all of them have given great performances except Nadiya and Kruttika who were inconsistent in their performances and sometimes unconvincing. The story has been sensational and revolves around a six-sigma event - a highly improbable event in the way the ending goes.  According to what I read, the story is an autobiographical adaptation by the original director Jitu Josph; it happened to him and his family and hence he approached a producer. After shooting for the first thirty minutes, the producer threw in the towel and in stepped Superstar Mohanlal who backed it to the hilt. "Drusyam" in Malayalam collected over Rs.50 crores and became the first film to cross that kind of a milestone reserved for big-brother film industries of erstwhile AP and Tamil Nadu. The original film runs for two hours and forty five minutes with minimum props and gripping intensity. The current remake runs for almost two hours and fifty minutes. The original film shows Mohanlal in a status of humble economic conditions. The remake shows Venky as a serial entrepreneur and  reasonably affluent farmer-entrepreneur.

To tell the story will be to give away the plot. And to analyse the treatment and faultlines in the story will also unveil the storyline. But we have to make a beginning somewhere and talk turkey. So the story begins with Venkatesh and Meena and their two lovely daughters, one a teenager Kruttika and the other a pre-teenager. Venkatesh runs a cable TV business which goes well into the graveyard shift. His world at work revolves around movies - and he watches them every waking minute at work which starts around noon and stretches till the morning dawn. His assistant Saptagiri helps him out at work and they take the calls from customers at whim. At home, Meena is the boss and runs the household with the daughters and her indulgences in shopping. Its a happy world for Venkatesh and family even if they quibble and crib about the world until one fine day an intruder disrupts the  peace. The intruder who takes lewd video of the teenaged daughter gets tackled in the most appropriate manner when he comes to Venky's home and makes fresh advances against Kruttika.

The crux of the film revolves around how Venky rallies behind his family. What really happened to the boy? Is he dead? Missing? Killed? Action speeds up with the boy's parents, Nadiya and Naresh stepping in. Nadiya is IGP and uses her full force to investigate the matter. Naresh is a doubting Thomas who always feared his wayward son was spoilt and had to end in a mess like this. The biggest support for Nadiya comes from a vengeaful constable of the local police station - Ravi Kale who    was rubbed on the wrong side by Venky. The film goes in a different direction of suspicion, witness-examination and probe into the antecedents of the boy's travel to the village. This part, the cross-examination part and the preparation by Venky in psychologically steeling his family's nerves is the most exciting part of the film. The treatment is more nuanced and works on aspects seldom highlighted in films about the elements of criminality - mind-body coordination, body-language, evidence and its destruction and reconstruction, the art of dodging cross-examination, and the psychology of a crime-implicated person. The ending of the film takes one or two extra turns before it leaves you with lots of food for thought - on how the justice system works in India and what happens when someone were to subvert it.

Surely, the second half throws in a basketful of surprises but the first half lags because the director takes a lazy approach to establishing the characters and their idiosyncracies. Despite a valiant attempt to remake the film, the film's original script seems to have some flaws which can't be overlooked. But if you see the film in its flow, these faults may not be relevant because the treatment of the story takes a different direction but still they are plausible. For instance, on one hand, Venky works in the night shift as a cable TV owner but there is no reason to stay out of home when the whole world is sleeping when you have an Assistant and customer calls are few. If Venky really loves his family so much, as they show later in the film, why does a father of two girls and a loving wife spend his nights out watching silly movies? Not once do they show either Venky or Saptagiri, his assistant taking customer care calls seriously. Secondly, in Malayalam film, Mohanlal has a pitiable economic background but here, Venky has a five-acre plot with a lovely pathway and an opulent house but still cribs when his wife shops or demands an extra ice cream? Third, the police who beckon his family for interrogation do not  check out his vast plotted house even once with sniffer dogs to find out if something's fishy. Fourth, almost every other character in the film uses a mobile phone including the delinquent boy but Venky doesn't use - which world is the director thinking of? If it is cable TV business, why do they show Venky all the time watching latest movies with channel logos shown once or twice? Does it mean that the customers also spend the night out watching the films all night? And not once do we see Venky using a remote while his assistant is shown photoshopping lovely females. Fifthly, the clues and alibis used by Venky during the interrogation - they don't really add up  on closer watch - which is what Nadiya alleges. (For example, no bus ticket  is issued without a date printed). Sixth, the interrogations done in a guest house are unlawful - they even interrogate a child and manhandle the womenfolk. And not once does a lawyer show up anytime during the in-camera interrogations. If watching films like "Ankuram" gives one knowledge about such subtle legal aspects as "habeus corpus", pray, why such a slip up? Seventh, in the Malayalam film, even the cable films watched by Mohanlal are intelligently assembled to stay relevant to the basic plot of the film. But here, they show films for populism - a Pawan Kalyan film here, a Mahesh Babu or a Sobhan Babu film there. But the beauty is why, the hero doesn't know that a naked SIM Card is less dangerous than a SIM inserted into a carbonn mobile phone. Lastly, since the film's perspectives are entirely shown from Venky's angle, enough care hasn't been taken in the characterisation of Nadiya - the mother in her dominates the policewoman in her way beyond the endurance levels of the audience. Which is why, she misuses the system of interrogation blatantly until she pays a price with her post. The ending is quick and brilliant as you leave the hall with a mixed feeling - Can everything be manipulated in the name of love and selfishness?

Performances-wise, Venky and Ravi Kale stand out with contrasting beauty. Venky is shown glamorously even if it is a dull character. The last several films of Venky have been forgettable flops and everytime he experimented in the last decade - "Nagavalli" or "Eenaadu" the audience rejected him. Despite the flaws, this is his best comeback film. It is not perfect film but it is watchable and draws you in despite inconsistencies. There are not many films that Tollywood can boast of in this genre. I didn't get goosebumps watching this film. But I didn't feel bored either. Music by Sharath is good in atleast the two songs. Cinematography by S.Gopal Reddy looks good. Comedy by Saptagiri alone is good the rest do not just fire up. Yes, visuals can be deceiving but to take a tongue-in-cheek approach to the film's title, it should not have been named "Drusyam". "Adrusyam" is better!

My Rating: 3/5.