Director Raaja Kiran is ecstatic, he is struggling to catch his forty winks as his phone rings endlessly. This is the day he has been waiting for since 14 years. Ask him how Geetanjali germinated he narrates in detail, “the prelude in Geetanjali is what I actually went through — my trials and tribulations as an assistant director, waiting to tell a story to a producer. I was walking past an apartment in a desolate area one day and I noticed a graveyard next to it. It set me thinking, I went to the graveyard and began writing Geetanjali. ”
Raaja was basically a photographer from Kaikaluru and worked as an assistant director with the help of producer Sunkara Madhu Murali. “I decided that I wouldn’t work in too many films as an assistant director. When I would suggest changes in the script for any film, the directors would snub me and say incorporate them in your script when you become a director.
Raaja had by then decided to make the film with comedian Srinivas Reddy as the hero. He approached many popular producers who were willing to produce the film provided he dropped Srinivas Reddy.
“Some big production houses said they would take up the project but would hire a new director and in that scenario writer Kona Venkat stepped in, he liked the script, added dollops of humour in the climax and even assured to produce the film. Anjali who earlier agreed to be a part of the project dropped out but again returned after Kona turned producer and made sure the project looked big. Things fell in place immediately. There were too many twists in the process, the making of the film itself can be a story,” he adds.
The director’s next in all probability would be the film for Usha Kiron Movies. It will not be a horror comedy again but about a common man facing immense financial crisis and the problems he faces when he comes to Hyderabad. “The story is about this man who comes to Hyderabad wanting to become somebody, but doesn’t know how. He has no job but has to sustain himself. In that scenario what will he do and what will happen to him if he gets 3 crore suddenly is the story which is again a reflection of my own problems,” he says and adds, “There are many writers with far more better stories than me but they have no support. I want to help such writers who have good scripts. Kona Venkat has written countless stories but he had taken a liking for a plot written by me just because it was fresh. If I find something like that I too will chip in my bit.”
