Hyderabad
October 10, 2006

Nagababu and Madhu met the scribes today to discuss about Stalin film and it’s success range. Here are the excerpts of the chitchat -

What is the range of success of Stalin?
Madhu: Stalin is all set to become the number one grosser in Telugu. Stalin is going to become number one in most of the centers. But if you look at the bigger picture and total revenue, Stalin will surely be the number one grosser of Telugu film industry. Stalin stood among the top 5 Indian first week grossers.

Did it recover money for the distributors?
Madhu: The distributors of Nizam, Krishna, Karnataka and Overseas recovered their investments so far and they are on profit curve now. In a week or two the rest of the distributors will recover money. In Ceded the distributor is yet to recover 50 lakhs which will be done in a week or two. The exhibitors who bought the film for fixed hires and minimum guarantee are enjoying profits now. Incidentally, Indra is the number one film in Ceded so far and Stalin is all set to cross Indra.

Since Stalin is released in 400 plus number of theaters, the money is being recovered very fast as most number of people might have already watched the film. Are you aiming for centers record for 50 days and 100 days?
Nagababu: Chiranjeevi is always against to the idea of running the films for the sake of records. The movie will run only on pure merit. We will not encourage running movie forcibly for the sake of records.

There was some divide talk for Stalin?
Nagababu: If Stalin film is bad, the collections would have dropped on 3rd day. But it is still going stronger. Divide talk is bound to arise for the hits of big hero films.

Which film did you like the best - Stalin or Tagore?
Nagababu: I like Stalin better because the method followed by the protagonist in Stalin is practical. The character of Stalin is positive and does his this in noble way. The character of Tagore is like a robin hood. He instills fear with his deeds.

Is it right that climax fight (hero bashing 100’s of guys) was trimmed by 4 minutes after the film’s release?
Nagababu & Madhu: Yes. We could not judge the impact of that fight before the release of the film. The total footage length of the film came to 10 hours as we had 4-5 alternative versions for each scene in the film. We shot 10 versions for the scene in which the girl saves chief minister from electric shock. There is one more humanitarian scene in the film that gives a solution to water problem between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. We are had to trim a lot in the film.

You gave more preference to other stuff in first half than focusing more on human thread?
Nagababu: If I had given more importance to ‘help 3 people’ in the first half, Stalin would have become another Rudraveena where I get good name as producer by leaving a big hole in my pocket. We used commercial padding to support such a delicate story idea. Because of that commercial padding, Stalin film became a commercially good product. If you look at Shankar’s film, there is a good social point. But he used commercial padding to narrate such sensitive story ideas. Stalin too is such an effort.

The race of physically challenged people has already come in your film ‘Manasu Mata Vinadu’?
Nagababu: Yes. That was inspired by a story from the book ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’. It was my idea to incorporate a similar scene in Stalin. And that same scene puts a seed of thought into protagonist’s brain to help 3 people.

There are also comments that Stalin music is not good?
Nagababu: Stalin music cannot be compared to that of Indra as Indra is a full fledged mass entertainer. In Stalin we attempted a noble issue. Hence inserting songs was a difficult process.

Which is the best film you produced so far?
Nagababu: Stalin is the best film. Though I produced a hit film Bavagaru Bagunnara, I was not proud of that film. There are two films - Rudraveena and Stalin - in my career that makes me proud.

Are you expecting any awards for Stalin?
Nagababu: Yes.