Filmmaker Rupak Ronaldson on directing Telugu cinema's 'Burning Star'

His debut venture ‘Kobbari Matta’ starring Sampoornesh Babu will finally hit screens this Saturday

Rupak Ronaldson is more excited than nervous about his directorial debut Kobbari Matta with Sampoornesh Babu as the lead. Set to release a day after the release of Nagarjuna and Rakul Preet-starrer Manmadhudu 2, this will be Rupak’s first feature film; otherwise he runs Videocoolie Media, a media house that works on ad and corporate films. “The media house is for my own survival. It is not easy to bag a film project; I used to escape from a hostel run by Catholic priests to watch first and second show movies,” remembers Rupak fondly.

Rupak claims Kobbari Matta was a project that he landed out of the blue. Producer Sai Rajesh had approached him with a readymade project and he was more than happy to take it up.

He promises that

Kobbari Matta is an out-and-out entertainer. “The audience will enjoy this movie like they enjoy the classic Jandhyala and EVV movies. I faced a lot of resistance from my orthodox family when I first announced that I wanted to pursue movies as career. They thought I should take up a 9 to 5 job and draw a decent salary. My parents brought a pastor home to talk me out of my decision. But they gave in eventually,” says Rupak who has a degree in filmmaking. But the fact remained, “It’s not easy to chase your dreams and fight for survival at the same time, when you have no film background. I come from Mancherial which has no cinema theatre even today. I worked in TV channels, did freelance editing to feed myself but kept writing stories to keep my dream alive,” he adds.

A fan of makers of the craft like K Vishwanath, Jandhyala, Bapu and Vamsi, Rupak regards classics as benchmarks for generations to come. According to him, the uniqueness of movies of that era seems to be missing. ‘I worked with producer Sai Rajesh for Sampoornesh’s

Hrudayakaleyam . He liked my work immensely. When we met again after a year and haff he offered me Kobbari Matta ,” he says.

With Sampoornesh doing a triple role, why did Kobbari Matta that started in 2016 took so long to complete? “Halfway through I fell ill, then came budget constraints; we overshot the budget. Then Sampoornesh’s prior commitments had to be met. Eventually there came a time when it was just three of us — me, Sai Rajesh and Sampoo — from the original team,” recollects Rupak.

The movie is a satirical take on family entertainers and has a three-and-a half minute-dialogue by Sampoornesh; it was a single-take delivery. “People will love Sampoo in this movie. He has worked on his dialogue delivery and dance moves,” he smiles.