Gopichand has graduated into a league of big stars. After Lakshyam, he proved that producers can bank on his image and he can actually pull single handedly openings. His market and range has increased. Now, comes another mass entertainer from him. As his latest release, Shouryam is gearing up for Sep 25th release, he spoke to Telugucinema.com at the producer’s office in Hyderabad. Excerpts from the interview..
What is Shouryam all about?
Shouryam is complete commercial movie. A wedding feast that includes the menu to suit everyone’s tastes! When I heard the script, what impressed me was the way it was told and structured. Screenplay is interesting. Human emotions are blended so nicely in a mass entertainer.
What made you to introduce cinematographer Shiva as director as he doesn’t have any prior experience?
I didn’t give him chance because he is an established cameraman but his narrative skills impressed me. After the narration, I came to conclusion that even if he executes it very blandly, it can pass the muster. Such is the narration. After first copy arrived, I felt happy that he proved beyond my expectations. I am sure he will go places after this movie.
There is a perception that you get more excited if someone comes with a ‘complete mass action movie’!
Not true. When someone tells me a story, I visualize another hero at that time and would come to the conclusion how would I, as audience, like that hero in that said story. If I don’t like that hero in that character, I would reject. Would I like a hero just bashing up baddies all the while? No, way, so how would I accept such stories. I look for emotional quotient in the mass stories too.
If you look any film be it Hindi, Tamil, English or Telugu, hero beats up villain. That is universal norm. But the impact comes only when there is an emotional attachment to that fight. Only when the situations are created to audiences to empathize with the protagonist, the fight scenes are appreciated.
Is Shouryam - a sister sentiment drama?
Watch it yourself on the silver screen. Tinabotu Ruchulu Adagadam Enduku.
What went wrong with Ontari?
I believe, heroine being raped and brutally murdered was not accepted by the audiences. Also a section of the audiences could not understand the ‘back-and-forth’ screenplay technique. We knew that the film clicks only when audiences digest the episode of heroine’s death. We knew we were taking big risk but if that film could be made it ought to be the way it was done.
So will you not go for experiments in future?
Will do surely, but those experiments would be minimized to make the film viable.
Can’t you blend ‘commercial element’s and ‘thematic variation’ like Surya did in Ghazini?
Frankly speaking, if Ghazini was not a Tamil film and marketed as ‘super hit Tamil film’, it would have been flopped in Tollywood. If it was made in Telugu with a mass hero here, I am sure, the film’s result would have been different.
Lakshyam was a big hit in your career. What, in your opinion, element struck the chord with the audiences?
See Lakshyam is essentially a rip off of Ghayal. We wanted to do a film with brother sentiment and luckily Vasu came with a story structured in Ghayal. Such films always work. Even if I do the same movie with some changes few years down the line, I am sure people would love it. Sentiments and human emotions always get audiences.
For your age, would it not be good to do romantic stories too?
You think that audiences accept me if I roam around trees and sing romantic duets. I believe I am not suitable for pure love stories. Although I like romantic dramas, my image doesn’t allow doing them. In fact, Sekhar Kammula offered Godavari to me, but I knew I could not to do justice to it.
What kind of movies you like personally?
I love entertainers with an emotional angle. I loved Alludu Gaaru very much. In the starting it looks like a mad comedy, but as the movie proceeds the story arrests you
Lots of rumors are circulating about your love life?
Yes, I heard them. And read them too. I don’t take them seriously. If rumors benefit some, let that be. Why should think too much about it and waste time unnecessarily.
Next films?
Not yet finalized. There is a film with Boyapati but script has not yet been okayed.
