DIL RAJU ..the man with the midas touch is enjoying string of successes. It usually happens in a dream for a youngster to scale to such heights in such a short span.His selection of scripts, encouragement to talented wanna bes, his music sense, his judgement, his faith in LORD VENKATESWARA, his concern for his friends SIRISH - LAXMAN, his dare attitude in taking risks..what not ? he is the perfect young blood who changed the exising meaning of the PRODUCER post in industry and is heading towards alltime records in success percentage.

He started by assisting his brother in his business, then as distributor, faced hits/flops and from 1997 his life turned and with the AADI film..his saga of success began and from then it seems which ever/whom ever he touches it is turning gold. It is not pure luck but it is the JUDGEMENT that is doing wonders !!! This handsome hunk has good taste in his attire too, his other specialities are his eyes and speaking style. This article is all about him.

Index - Itz All About ‘Dil Raju’

–
Original Name: V Venkata Ramana Reddy
Proper: Narsing Palli, Nizamabad
Pet Name: Raju. It got carried into film industry too.
–
Raju’s is a joint family. He has two brothers. His wife is Anitha who is the presenter of all his films. He has a daughter, Sri Hansita. Sirish(Raju’s cousin) and Laxman are his close buddies. Sudhakar Reddy (Hero Nithin’s father) and Mahendar Reddy (Raju’s cousin) are also from his place.
–
His foray into films:

Raju’s family shifted to Hyderabad to start an Automobile Business, in R.P.Road, Secunderabad. There were many Film Distribution Officers around it. There used to be a coin box near their shop where many film persons used to come and discuss lot of things regards films. Thus Raju got interested in films. He started thinking of venturing into some business in films. Sudhakar Reddy and Mahendar Reddy were already successful film distributors. All of a sudden, Mahendar Reddy called Raju and asked him to join him if he is interested in distributing films. He discussed with his family. Some opined that it would be a risk and others were keen to take it up. After some dilemma he decided to try and entered into distribution. Then started the real drama, inspite of perfect planning, judgement the results were disatrous.

He started with Sisindri, Alluda Majaakaa, Big Boss, Puttinilla Mettinilla, Raja Simham. Only one among these was a hit. This affected them financially. Raju felt that such failures might result in clashes among the partners. He stepped back from distribution. Then resumed Automobile Business but film thoughts were revolving around him. He was successful in all the fields that he entered and so could not digest the failures in his prime interest. There was again group discussion. All supported him by saying, if you have that much interest then we shall try once again. He listened to many stories, observed the profile of directors. Then took the rights of ‘Amma ..Nanna kavali’ film of a director who gave three consecutive hits. He believed strongly on this family picture and was assured of success. Still, luck was not on his side. Then he decided that this business doesn’t suit for him. But he could not give up his trails and so wanted to try once again and so took ‘Arundhati’ film with Director Kranti Kumar, Producer Costumes Krishna, Heroine Soundarya combination. They all were on success spree at that time. He thought that he would also get that magic touch of luck with this film. Though he carefully chose this project still it was a disaster. He was in deep depression. He strongly decided to quit film industry. Then concentrated fully on his Automobile Business.

One fine day Costumes Krishna called him and told about a Super hit Kannada film. Raju could not move away from this. They watched it and Raju liked it immensely. There was once again a group discussion. His brothers insisted on the earlier decision of not going for further trails. Sirish and Laxman stood by his side and showed interest to take it up believing in Raju’s confidence. They tried a lot for partners but could not get one. Atlast M.S.Reddy came forward. They went ahead. From that instant, they were in full tension. If this film too bombs then there is no alternative to permanent packup. Finally the release day of the film arrived. Audience liked it and it got hit talk. It is ‘Pelli pandiri’ film starring Rasi, Jagapathi Babu. This way after nearly 10 films that they got a hit which relieved all their pains. This is Raju’s one of the sweetest memories.

After this, success followed him with consecutive super hits like Toli Prema, Seetaramula Kalyanamu chootamu rarandi. Then he started his own distribution with the film ‘Oke Okkadu’. Sakhi, Ganesh, Murari, Khushi….followed it which created a big sensation of successive successes. This propelled his confidence and made him to think of his own production. But things went topsy turvy and once again he had a bad patch. He reached the state of pre - ‘Pelli pandiri’ and was once again in a dilemma of quitting industry. Then the miracle repeated in the form of the film ‘Aadi’. It was a roaring success at box office and gave life to Raju & Co.

He could see the spark in V.V.Vinayak and wanted to produce a film under his direction. . Thus ‘Dil’ was made. It was such a good hit that the film’s name became his prefix. Then afterwards, people started calling him - Dil Raju. It was V.V.Vinayak who taught him about the nuances of looking at a script.This helped him in judging the scripts. After ‘Dil’, there was no looking back. Sensational hit ‘Arya’ followed. Sukumar assisted ‘Dil’. Having excited with the brief storyline of ‘Arya’, Raju offered direction chance to Sukumar and asked for the complete script. Raju believed that it had the potential to become a sensational movie. It is said that Sukumar made a notes full of over 300 interesting ideas for the screenplay. They picked the best among them. Then they dilly dallied on the title and prepared a big list of names for the hero and finally zeroed on ‘Arya’ and the rest is history. There was no looking back for them as what ever Raju touched turned gold.

After ‘Arya’ they did ‘Bhadra’. It got divide talk in the beginning but later picked up and became a decent hit. Then it was the turn of Blockbuster ‘Bommarillu’. Raju is known for identifying the spark in youngsters. Having seen the inputs of Bhaskar in the story discussions of ‘Bhadra’, he asked him to prepare a subject. On hearing to the story line of ‘Bommarillu’ he got so much impressed that though Bhaskar wanted to take some time to improve the script, he was eager to produce it. Such was his belief on the subject. It was Raju was coined the title upon visiting YVS Chowdhary film’s audio function. ‘Bommarillu’ is the banner name of YVS. Bommarillu became such a massive hit that in its triple platinum disc function Raju, Siddharth, Genelia broke into tears. Raju gave an emotional speech in the function explaining the way he reached to that state.

He thanked Costumes Krishna for giving him life when he wanted to quit industry and Sirish - Laxman by standing on his side all through his life. Among these huge successes, he had some minor setbacks. He proudly said that Vamsi Paidypally, Writer and Director of ‘Munna’ has comeup with an excellent script within 45 days and will surely be a big hit. It was their biggest budget film but it bombed at box office and ended as an average grosser. This gave him the first jolt as a producer. Then came ‘Parugu’. It also received severe negative talk initially. Then rumor mills were happy seeing the downslide of Raju. But he had enormous confidence and the film picked up unbelievably and became a big commercial hit.

In recent times, almost all films distributed by Raju are hits. ‘Andala Ramudu’, ‘Pokiri’, ‘Happy Days’ are stupendous ventures for him. On seeing ‘Happy Days’ he gave a good offer to Sekhar Kammula and bought all the rights of AP. It turned into such a block buster that the whole industry was stunned at his judgement. From then, it became a notion that if Raju takes a film for distribution it will surely be a good hit. He has become an ISI stamp for films as quoted by JD Chekravarthy whose film ‘Homam’ is distributed by Raju. ‘Ullasanga Utsahanga’ is also another feather in his cap. As he can’t produce many films at a time he has given open offer for all enthusiasts to come up with good films and he is ready to distribute them if he likes them.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS