“Double Hattrick is on the way” - Dil Raju

“My life has both positive and negative phases. After 5 consecutive hits this year, we are sure to score another blockbuster with MCA.” says producer Dil Raju. The star producer who hit success with 22 of his 28 films is celebrating his birthday today and is confident about the success of his upcoming film. The ace producer with unbeatable success record spoke to the media about the film…

How old are you today with this birthday?

I’m turning 47. My life has both positive and negative phases. After 5 consecutive hits this year, we are sure to score another blockbuster with MCA, this is positive news and my wife’s demise is the negative event. It hurt me a lot but I’ve moved on. Out of the 28 films I’ve made as a producer, 22 are hit. However, this year wasn’t so great for me as a distributor. Since the inception of Sri Venkateswara Creations in 1999, I haven’t seen such loss in distribution. I should receive both success and failures in the same way when I’m a producer. Due to some emotional commitments, I’ve lost a good share of profits.

‘O my Friend’ wasn’t a hit…reason for the reunion?

The failure of the film isn’t just attributed to the director. We wanted to make ‘O my friend’ as an experimental film with 4 crore budget. however, after Siddharth and other star heroines joined the project, the cost blew up. Also, Krishnashtami was supposed to be a comedy entertainer but became very hero-centric. Also, Naga Chaitanya’s image as Nagarjuna’s son has overshadowed ‘Josh’. Since there were no conflicts in many colleges at the time, the film flopped.

Tell us about Middle-Class Abbayi

Middle-Class Abbayi tells the story from the mindset of a Middle-Class Family. Nani, Sai Pallavi,Bhoomika and villain Vijay Varma have given their best performances. The film is about the relation between brother in law and sister in law. First half of the film is a fun ride that descends into the main story after the interval. The last 15 minutes of the film is crucial.

You seem to analyse a great deal about films?

When you are at a certain position in the industry, your words must carry weight. As a producer and distributor, I analyse films very closely. Out of the 5 films i’ve released, there is both appreciation and controversy. I usually stay away from controversies, but both in Raja the great and DJ, I’ve faced backlash. Rumours broke out that both the films caused a loss for the distributors and I want to clarify something here. As a distributor, I release my own films in major areas. I understand what sort of pain a distributor goes through, during the film’s release. I usually have 3 - 4 distributors along with me. I know the collections of several regions. Many distributors combine higher value and shares in their collection report. We are basically fooling ourselves this way. Many are imitating each other in this practise and are loosing heavily. We should also follow the Bollywood model of reporting only the gross until the first week and then the shares. With this practice, most controversies can be avoided. Distributor’s fulfillment increases the producer’s moral support. It’s my duty to protect my distributors. Say, if a distributor lost 1 crore due to my film and I compensated for 30 - 35 lakhs, the distributors will trust me as a producer. Unlike this, If you discard the film as business after it was sold, the relation with your distributor ends there. This is not good in the long run and a distributor and producer must travel together. Only if the film’s collections exceed the project cost, it certifies as a hit and not otherwise. The collections of a film after release are as important as the budget during the production. This is what I’ve learned this year as a producer

Is it right to sell rights to Amazon Prime?

Cinema is changing constantly. Once, we used to wish for 100 day shows and now the measure has come down to 3 weeks. Piracy CDs are breaking out on the very day of a film’s release. Is someone refraining from watching piracy?… No. When a movie is pirated for public viewing, what’s so bad about watching it at Amazon Prime for a certain price? I’m not asking to stop selling digital rights as a producer. But the major damage is caused by piracy and should be addressed first. Both Producer and Distributor must fight piracy.

Working with any new directors in the future?

I’m making 2 more films currently under my banner and both of them are from debut directors. One film is titled ‘Ade Nuvvu, Ade Nenu’ and am making another film with a director by the name ‘Sashi’.