Comedian Srinivas Reddy spent a sleepless night a day before his film Geetanjali’s release. The actor after years of waiting was trying hard to suppress his excitement but his eyes said it all. One must watch Geetanjali in the single screen theatres to see the delirium of the masses. Srinivas didn’t do any comedy. All he did is to narrate how an assistant director (his character in Geetanjali ) in Krishna Nagar comes late to narrate a story to a producer in the film when a ghost in his rented flat beats the living daylights out of him; from then on he hasthe audience stay glued to the seats. He says, “ Geetanjali was to release three years ago. We didn’t want to waste money on a guest house. The team was at my house and my mom cooked and fed us. Today she has no words, she is choked with emotion and friends have been calling telling me how theatres are running housefull.”
Srinivas Reddy got an opportunity to play hero seven years back but he had observed people in the industry, his contemporaries and preferred to wait and watch for a story that would take him places. The moment of reckoning arrived when director Raaja Kiran chose him for Geetanjali but that was the beginning of a second struggle, to find a producer and a popular heroine to market the film.
He talks with maturity and conviction, “If I play the hero’s part, people won’t break gates and jump over the walls to see me. Posters padithe morning show ki ellipoye antha scene ledhu naku . We needed a flavour, a big banner, popular heroine to push the film and I know I don’t have that craze; people know that I act well but nothing more than that. My film shouldn’t get stuck in the lab, producers should be happyseeing their money recover when they take a risk and cast me. I do not play Anjali’s love interest in the movie. I am a narrator. I had to be soft and underplay the character. Comedians Rajesh and Shankar were having the audience in splits and if I had behaved funny like them there wouldn’t have been any variation in my role. The humour would have been reduced and scenes would have been missed.”
The film for the most part shows how wannabe directors who come to Krishna Nagar for a break are taken for a ride, very easily.Is that exaggerated? “No it isn’t,” he quips. “Have you watched commercials on television channels asking people to contact them if they want to become somebody in movies? They flash phone numbers and you wouldn’t know the amount they spend on these advertisements. All this is recovered when people with dreams in their eyes contact them. My nephew recently applied and he was asked to pay a huge amount for application and processing. The percentage of people getting cheated in Krishna Nagar might have reduced but the fact is getting cheated is definite. However, if you are talented, have patience, wait and believe in your dreams, you will get what you want one day.”
Srinivas Reddy’s calendar is packed with the regular comedian roles; he is happy with that and will take up a lead only if a story like Geetanjali inspires him again. He winds up saying, “I am grateful to Kona Venkat, Raaja Kiran and Anjali for making this happen and the audiences who have been so kind in making the film such a grand success.”
