As I was hanging out on the sets of 'Collector Gari Abbayi' Surendra had an idea of making a film based upon 'The Sound of Music' which was later made into 'Rao Gari Illu'. In 'Collector Gari Abbayi' since I came towards the end after most of the script was done and decisions of casting and selection of technicians were already made, I thought it will be a unique opportunity to be involved in a film right from the inception of the idea. By that time my status was that I became close to Venket and Surendra and Nagarjuna but nowhere were they remotely in a state of mind to offer me a film to direct, their basic contention being I don't have practical experience.
But on the force of my personality I slowly started influencing Surendra who wanted an established Director for 'Rao Gari Illu' to take a new Director with lots of experience. I suggested Tarani the 2nd assistant in 'Collector Gari Abbayi' who had around 14 years of experience and who I knew well. My agenda was that if he is directing I can be an intrinsic part in all the decisions right from the beginning or more simply put, that I can be a backseat Director. So I manipulated Surendra to decide on Tarani which he finally did. I was ecstatic because of this development as it gave me a chance to study right from the ringside how an idea grows and shapes up into a film. Little did I know how horribly wrong this would go. Tarani initially was very grateful to me as he knew that I was the main reason for Surendra to take him as a Director, but slowly with time he grew tremendously irritable with my constant perceived interference which I thought were my creative inputs and also became very jealous of my proximity with the actors and the Producer. A.N.R, Nagarjuna's father, was the star of the film who kept a distance from everybody including Director Tarani. All the other actors like Jayasudha, Revathy etc used to constantly want to interact with me more than Tarani which understandably upset Tarani a lot. A point came where Tarani gave an ultimatum to Surendra that he won't shoot if I am on the set. Seeing Surendra's dilemma I offered to stay out. But the problem was that since it was me who narrated the story to all the actors and Tarani was not shooting it the way they thought it should be and also that he was not able to tell them the reasons for the changes created a lot of discomfort on the set.
Meanwhile 'Collector Gari Abbayi' released and became a big hit and Nagarjuna was in form. By that time he already came into a frame of mind to take a chance with me as a Director. But A.N.R was completely against it and told Nagarjuna 'just because Ramu can speaks in English and quote from English novels and films does not mean that he can direct'. Nagarjuna expressed his helplessness.
As this was going on, one day Tarani was shooting a key scene and A.N.R had a doubt on the structuring of the scene which Tarani could not answer. To escape Tarani told him that the scene was conceived by me and approved by Surendra and that he was just forced to shoot it. A.N.R called for me and Surendra.
He took off on me at the stupidity of the scene when I stopped him and explained to him the whole point of the scene and how it should be shot and in that discussion A.N.R realized how wrongly Tarani was shooting and worse than that he didn't even understand the point of the scene. He asked me to be present for the shooting of the scene and by the end of it he told Nagarjuna at home that he was mighty impressed with me.
With that practically all decks were cleared as A.N.R gave a green signal at least to seriously consider to give me a break. Nagarjuna was positive anyway and Venket and Surendra were reasonably positive but still dilly dallying a little now and then. Now the question was when? Venket said they were shooting a film called 'Vijay' with B.Gopal and Surendra was planning another film with Kodandi Rami Reddy starring the father and son again and after that there was another project with K.Raghvendra Rao. So Venket said they can think about my film only after those films got over. My heart sank as I was in no mood to wait that long.
Continues'
