Producer Bellamkonda Suresh, who is currently celebrating his 25 years in the industry as a producer, speaks of his hiatus, his son’s debut film Chatrapathi being a flop and more
Producer Bellamkonda Suresh has completed 25 years in the Telugu Film Industry. He made his debut with the film Sambayya that stars late Srihari as the lead. The film was released in 1999. Today, Bellamkonda is celebrating his 57th birthday. “It’s been a wonderful journey for me. I’ve made about 38 films as a producer and my last film, Ganga in 2015,” recalls Bellamkonda.
However, the hiatus? Reason he says it was his sons. “My elder son Sai Sreenivas is well settled and busy with few projects and my younger son Ganesh is also settling now. I am planning to produce a film next April,” said Suresh. The producer said though he didn’t produce any film, he is in the industry and working. “I executed the Hindi film Chatrapathi in which my son Sreenivas made his debut in HIndi,” said the producer. The film, however, didn’t do well. “Some of my friends told me that May 12 was the best date, so we released it on that date. It collected 98 lakhs gross on the first day and we expected a good collection on the second day. But one week before this film The Kerala Story was released our film didn’t do well initially, but picked up in the second week remarkably. So, our film didn’t collect much on the second day as it collected Rs 30 lakhs. We made a mistake somewhere, so it didn’t go well,” said the producer.
Talking about his journey of 25 years, the producer was a bit sad that his first film’s lead actor is no more. “My first film was with Srihari and he is no more now. He passed away at a young age and he was a very good friend of mine. The director of the film KS Nageswara Rao is also no more, so I always feel bad whenever I think of my debut film,” said the producer.
The producer aid that he is now in a good position because of the Telugu film industry. He is planning to release a film every three months. The producer said in these years he has seen lows and highs. “There is no regret for anything. I balanced both highs and lows in the same way and that’s why I can continue till now. In 2015 once I looked at my balance sheet, I got Rs 38 crore loss and I settled each and everyone selling my properties. Those properties are now Rs 1,000 worth and I never regret it. But in these nine years, I earned a lot of money and now I am ready to produce films,” said Bellakonda.
Bellamkonda also introduced VV Vinayak as director with the film Aadi. Vinayak became one of the top directors of Telugu Cinema. “I am in touch with him regularly and also many others in the industry,” said Suresh. He added that before he turned as producer, he worked as Manager for Mohan Babu’s film. “Mohan Babu garu is my Godfather, he actually offered me as manager for his film,” he said.
Bellakonda did few remakes as producer in his career like Naa Autograph, Sambo Siva Sambo, Lakshmi Narasimha and Bodyguard. “Though there is an OTT platform where you can see films in all languages, I still feel that we can do remakes. I bought the rights for a film to remake in Telugu and I will announce the details soon,” said. He added that if the film has good entertainment and emotions, it is definitely successful whether it’s a remake or a straight film. When asked at present which director he wanted to work with? “Definitely, Puri Jagannadh. He is a director who can project the lead actor in a different way and he also completes the film in 90 days. If you ask, I want to work with Puri Jagannadh,” said Bellamkonda.
For another question he said that his elder son is getting married soon. “It’s almost confirmed and I will announce the details in a few days,” he said.
