Clean entertainment, with more than a sprinkling of commercial elements, is enough to get the box office register ring non-stop.
So what does it take for success?
A saleable star-cast, sufficient budget to ensure use of the best in technology, pleasing visuals from locations across the globe and music that is not jarring to the ear. Not to mention an opportune time for release.
These, according to filmmaker Sreenu Vaitla, born Srinivasa Rao, are essentials for a better return on investment. The 13 movies he has made in as many years have either been plain commercial hits or those that drew critical acclaim.
Across the globe
That’s the ‘Dookudu’ director for you. His latest offering, ‘Badshah’ with Telugu tinsel town’s reigning queen Kajal Agarwal and Jr. N.T. Rama Rao, hit a whopping 1,550 screens across the globe on Friday, including Australia, Canada, parts of Europe, the Gulf, Germany, UK and USA.
The director and producer Bandla Ganesh claim that ‘Badshah’ opened in the highest number of screens in Andhra Pradesh too.
This claim is not without allegations that in some parts of the State, ‘Swamy Ra..Ra..’ starring Swati and Nikhil had to bear the brunt of the ‘Badshah’ onslaught.
Carefully edited
The man who wrote the screenplay, dialogues and directed ‘Badshah’ says he was very careful in mixing the right ingredients and reviewed the digitally-edited versions every night before he went to bed. Though the final product did have Editor M.R. Varma’s expertise, but Vaitla says he saw that to it that there were no double-entendres or skin show.
“What I succeeded was in bringing out a product that was acknowledged as pleasing to the eye and not jarring in any way — be it for the songs or the background score and S.S. Thaman has not let me down. So was Guhan’s work behind the camera — adding to the scenic beauty of exotic locations in Italy and Switzerland. Writers Kona Venkat and Gopi Mohan worked hard in being creative and spontaneous, in the comedy tracks and the serious one-liners that NTR has,” Sreenu Vaitla said.
