Director Anil Ravipudi completed 10 years as director in the TFI. He talks about his journey, his latest film, his upcoming film with Chiranjeevi and more…
suresh kavirayani
Anil Ravipudi completed 10 years as director in the Telugu Film Industry (TFI) with his debut film ‘Pataas’ released on January 23, 2015. In these 10 years, he made eight films and all of them are hits. “From my debut film to now, I am getting appreciation and also bigger hits one after another,” said Anil. “All my films done very well and I didn’t see any low point except the two years pandemic, which is low for everyone,” said the director.
His latest ‘Sankranthiki Vasthunnam’ is heading towards a huge blockbuster and surprised many with its huge collections. Venkatesh played the lead actor, while Meenakshi Chaudhary and Aishwarya Rajesh are the female leads. “It is not an ordinary success; this film is now history, particularly when you see the revenue of the film. It also gave me a big relief, because somewhere a few people criticizing and with this film, that also cleared,” said Anil.
When asked about a small kid uttering adult dialogues, he supported it. “There is so much impact on kids these days, because of the OTT. I wanted to tell through my kid character that if you watch some web series in OTT, they definitely spoil. So, I have to make the kid utter those dialogues.”
For another question, he said, his dream was to become a director. “Yes, I wanted to be a director and my wish came true with my debut film ‘Pataas’. All these films are a bonus,” he said. “I give full credit to Nandamuri Kalyan Ram, who produced, acted and gave chance to me with ‘Pataas’,” said Anil. He added that his aim is not to disappoint audiences. “I always try to do something different from my earlier film. I don’t want to repeat the characters or genre in my next film. I also took care that there is no resemblance of any character from my earlier film in my next film. After ‘Bhagavanth Kesari’, I did ‘Sankranthiki Vasthunnam’, both are quite different genres. Also the success of my earlier film gives confidence to do better in my next film.”
The director said that family entertainers with comedy backdrop are always successful. “If you see films like ‘Aa Okkati Adakku’, ‘Appula Apparao’ and many others, which were successful in our earlier times, audience came to the theatre to get some laughs and I feel that I am providing it to them. If they laugh and enjoy watching my films, that’s a big success for me,” he said.
Talking about his films which are mostly entertainers, he said, “My strength is to provide entertainment. So, I can go with this kind of genre even in future also. But after the success of a couple of films, I can go for experiment,” he said.
When asked about some people criticizing his films of being ‘Jabardasth’ skits and he was good at it, he reacted very angrily, saying, “Where did I write a ‘Jabardasth’ skit? All these years a few people are criticizing and I want to answer them with my films. Take my latest film which is getting humongous response and it is creating history in collections, audience watching it and enjoying it. What proof you need than this? I don’t want to answer that kind of a question, audience will reply for it.”
When he made ‘Sankranthiki Vasthunnam’, his thought was that audience who likes his earlier ‘F2’ may come and watch this one too. “But it reached beyond my expectations and its shocking and surprising,” he said. He added that people are eager to watch entertainment movies.
The director said that he couldn’t sleep the night before his film’s release. “When the shooting was happening and then promotions, I was normal. But when it’s come to release, I couldn’t sleep the night before, because I was a bit scared about it,” he said. “I pray God that the film is a success on the first day,” he added.
The director said he didn’t change much from his debut film till now in these 10 years. “Now, I am a matured person and like earlier, I am not responding to any small criticism or for any small thing. That’s the only thing I learnt. Otherwise, I am the same person,” said Anil. He added that actors like Ravi Teja, Mahesh Babu and Venkatesh perfectly match his comedy timing. “Other actors also did, but their strengths are different. But these three actors perfectly catch my comedy punches and dialogues,” said the director with his experience.
For another question, he said he will watch all movies releasing on every Friday. “I watch all the movies and I feel that it is part of a learning process,” he said. For characters in his films, he is inspired from real ones. “I always observe my surroundings, people around me, observe the society, when I meet some people, I observe them and get inspiration for all my characters. I always get inspired by real people to portray my characters,” said Anil.
After the successful ‘F2’, Anil made the sequel to it ‘F3’, but the sequel was not much of a success. “If I continue the film where the ‘F2’ ends, like Venkatesh and Tamannah having kids and their problems started with them, it is going to be more success than the first one. But with an overconfidence, I made a different story. If I follow like ‘DJ Tillu’ and then ‘Tillu Square’, ‘F3’ could be done better,” said Anil, about his sequel.
The director generally takes senior actor Rajendra Prasad in his films, but in this film he missed him. “Initially, I wanted to rope in for the Chief Minister’s role, but I wanted to work with Naresh. So, I planned a surprising role for Rajendra Prasad in the second half, but somehow missed him in this film,” said Anil.
Talking about ‘Sankranthiki Vasthunnam”s result, he said, he couldn’t imagine. “Particularly this film’s success, I can’t imagine, because it went to roots and it’s surprising to everyone and also to me. I didn’t understand why this film became that much success. The final revenue definitely shocks everyone. This film is a case study for me and I have to sit and analyze it,” said the director.
Anil’s next film is with Megastar Chiranjeevi and asked about it, he said, “It’s too early to talk about the film as we are still doing our homework about the genre and the story. I want to come up with a different story which he didn’t do till now”. Anil said that he is happy as a director and doesn’t want to produce films. “I am happy as director and want to provide entertainment,” said Anil.
He said he will work on the script for three to four months and then for the shoot of his film five to six months. “One film a year is good,” he said.
