YVS Chowdary is a live example of how a passionate movie lover can become a movie director in spite of all kinds of hurdles if one has the will power to make it happen. He started the trend of making films with new star cast with Nagarjuna's home production SSRKCR. He directed the likes of Nagarjuna and Mahesh Babu before starting his home production house 'Bommarillu' and delivering the super hit in the form of Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo.

When idlebrain.com entered his room, we found the photographs of four celebrities - NT Rama Rao, K Raghavendra Rao, Veturi and Nagarjuna - proudly displayed on the walls as an acknowledgement for the invaluable encouragement provided - directly or indirectly - to him. Here are the excerpts of the detailed interview of YVS Chowdary that lasted for one and half hour.

I was born in a lower middle class family in Gudiwada. My father is a lorry driver and mother is a housewife. Both of them of are uneducated though my father knows how to sign on papers. I am the third and last kid in my family. I have an elder sister and an elder brother. During my childhood, I made good friends with another kid called AV Rao, who was from an affluent family.

AV Rao's parents used to give him Rs.50 (that was a big amount during those days) as pocket money whereas my parents never gave me any money. They occasionally took me with them for movies. Rao and I used to spend Rao's pocket money to watch NTR's films. NTR's films were always a delight for kids as they had right kind of ferocious fights and masalas that fulfilled childhood fantasies. Thanks to AV Rao and his pocket money, I got obsessed with NTR's films. From my childhood, I never used to miss the first day first show of all NTR films. Since Gudivada is a C center, exhibitors screened more of folklore films (Janapada cinemalu).

I was also good at studies. I got school first in 6th and 7th classes and I was town first in 8th class. I also started NTR Abhimana Sangham for Gudiwada and worked as the president when I was studying in 9th class. From then I used to get distinction marks, but missed those first positions. I always felt that education is one of my prime responsibilities, as my parents wanted us to become well educated. But my brother, who was also obsessed with NTR films, failed in exams and he had to settle as assistant to my father as a lorry driver. Hence, I didn't want to let down my parents. They wanted me to become an engineer and they also had the belief that I would never let their hopes down. Hence, I made sure that I didn't spoil my studies, though my obsession towards films was at a peak.

During my 9th class, I started watching the films of other heroes as well. I used to analyze the positive and negative points of all the films I saw. I also used to analyze as to who were the favorable directors for NTR and who were the favorable directors for other heroes. Fans of all the heroes would meet in a park in Gudiwada to discuss about latest releases. In that process, I impressed a lot of people with my analysis on films. All of them felt that I was very balanced about judging a movie's strengths and weaknesses irrespective of the star cast. I even used to predict the box office fate and the number of days it's going to run and most of the times it used to turn out to be true.

People used to say that 'Yalamanchali (I used to be called like that) is good at analyzing and judging films'. At that time, a friend called RVR, who was a fan of Krishnam Raju, suggested me to think over direction as I had an eye for perfect analysis on films. That was the first instance where the seed of movie-direction was sown into my mind. From that day onwards, I became more obsessed with films. The degree of obsession was so high that when Vetagadu (NTR-Sridevi-Raghavendra Rao) ran for 62 days in Gudiwada, I saw it 59 times. I used to collect money from fans, buy garlands, adorn NTR cutouts with garlands and decorate theaters that screened NTR's films. At the same time, I made sure that I did good job in studies. I joined in English medium in MPC group. I wrote EAMCET and got a rank around 1400. At that time, it was not good enough to get a seat in engineering in AP. I got a seat in Engineering through merit in Chennai and joined Engineering College there. My parents had faith in me and sent me to Chennai.

I rented a room and started attending college. Luckily, I was staying in a place, which was very close to movie-related technicians. Most of those technicians belonged to editing profession. They used to take me to editing room and I always observed them working, as I was genuinely interested in films.

My heart was into films. But my parents were sending me money to attend college and become an engineer. I was in a dilemma for a year whether to continue my studies or get into movies. After I finished my engineering, I wanted to enter films, as it was my lifetime goal. I thought - Why should I waste my time for three more years by studying engineering? If I join films, I can learn a lot in those three years. So, I decided to drop out from college and join films without the knowledge of my parents. The editors surrounding my room suggested me that one should have a good editing sense to become a good director. They also tipped me saying that it was easy to get a chance as an assistant to any director if one worked in editing field. I joined an editor called Narasimha Rao as an assistant and worked for a dubbing film titled 'Bhayankara Khoonikoru', which was produced by D Subba Rao (of Triveni beetle nut powder). The censor board objected to the title 'Bhayankara Khoonikoru' and the film is retitled as 'Top Takkar'. That was the first time I saw my name in titles on the big screen. I decided that I have to try for an assistant direction position.

During that period my editor got a chance to work for a straight film titled 'Aggi Pidugu' with Giri Babu and Kannada Ravi Chandran as heroes. Giridhar (who is directing serials in ETV now) directed it. Editor told me that he knows the director and asked me to work as an assistant to that film as it would be helpful when I join K Raghavendra Rao later. Since it is a low budget film, I used to put my own money and commute in buses to reach the shooting locations. I used to eat food on my own expenses as I didn't want to become a burden for the producers who were making low budget film and also I went there to learn work primarily.

When I joined the editing department, I informed my parents that I was doing a part time job and earning money to support my living expense and asked them to send me rice bags. I used to walk for 10 kilometers to eat in a hotel, as I would get meals for Rs 2.50 as opposed to Rs. 3/- in a hotel near my room. I used to walk for 10 kilometers to save that 50 paise.

K Raghavendra Rao is my favorite director since my childhood, mainly because he produced sensational hits in the combination of NTR. I decided that I should work with him as an assistant at any cost. I met him one day and requested him to let me work as his assistant. He said that he already had 17 assistants (in 3 batches) and those assistants did not have full time work. He asked me to meet him after one year. For the next seven consecutive days, I used to go and stand in front of his house at 7 in morning and at 6 in the evening to get his attention. In the mean time, I got introduced to a person called 'Babai' in Raghavendra Rao's house. He was from Gudiwada too. He asked me to show my writing in Telugu by writing something on paper. He liked it and he asked me to write something in Hindi and English as well. At that time, 'cheti dasturi' was very important to join as an assistant director. Babai showed those papers to K Raghavendra Rao. He liked it and he verified the same by making me write the same stuff in front of his eyes. K Raghavendra Rao made me his assistant for the film 'Pattabhishekam'. He liked my work and he had blind faith in my capabilities. From then onwards he used to make me work for all his films continuously. I worked for Kaliyuga Pandavulu, Sahasa Samrat, Agni Putrudu, Donga Ramudu, Janaki Ramudu, Rudra Netra and Jagadeka Veerudu Atiloka Sundari (JVAS). While the other assistants were idle for a period, I got continuous feeding in terms of assistant direction.

I used to go to Veturi Sundara Rama Murthy and get songs written for Raghavendra Rao's movies. Veturi liked me a lot. During the making of JVAS, he recommended me to Aswini Dutt. Aswini Dutt called me and told me that he liked my work and he wanted to give direction chance. But he wanted me to work for a a projects as co-director in Vyjayanti banner before giving me the break. With the permission of my Guru Raghavendra Rao, I shifted into Vyjayanthi banner and worked for Aswamedham with Bala Krishna as hero. At that time Aswini Dutt announced that YVS Chowdary is going to direct a film for Vyjayanti banner. If I look back and think, I realize now that it was Aswini Dutt, who is the man behind YVS Chowdary becoming a successful director. If he has not told me those precious words, I would have remained as an assistant director. He might not have given me a movie direction chance. But his encouraging words and the promise made me realize my capability of directing a film restored the confidence levels.

Unfortunately Aswamedham became a flop and he was not in a position to give me break. I worked for Vyjayanti's next film 'Govinda Govinda', which also flopped miserably. Though Aswini Dutt wanted to give me a chance, he was not in a position to take anymore risk by giving a chance to a new director like me. I too felt guilty that I was becoming an obligation for him and an unnecessary burden to Vyjayanti banner. I told him that I was interested in entering Bollywood and requested him to give some contacts in Bollywood. Then he informed me that Mahesh Bhatt was coming to Hyderabad to direct Criminal with Nagarjuna under KS Rama Rao 's 'Creative Commercials' banner. Aswini Dutt introduced me to KS Rama Rao and I worked under Mahesh Bhatt for Telugu and Hindi versions of Criminal.

When I was assisting Ramgopal Varma during Govinda Govinda, I made friends with Krishna Vamsi who also was my colleague for that film. Krishna Vamsi asked me to work for Gulabi. After completing Gulabi work, Aswini Dutt again asked me to work for Bhuloka Veerudu with Chiranjeevi as hero in the direction of Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, which was shelved later. I felt that things were somehow not getting materialized in Vyjayanti banner in spite of the good will of Dutt and I came out of Vyjayanti banner.

During all these years, I happened to work with Nagarjuna for various films like Agni Putrudu, Janaki Ramudu, Govinda Govinda and Criminal. He was impressed with my dedication and working style. He also liked my judgments. I used to predict the fate of films during the production phase itself. Once Aswini Dutt asked me to tell about my prediction on JVAS. I told that it would become super hit. I told Aswini Dutt that Aswamedham and Govinda Govinda would become flops during the production stage. Aswini Dutt told me that he treated them as classified information but later on he passed it to Nagarjuna and Ram Gopal Varma. When they spoke to me about it, I defended my judgment with the analysis. At that time, Nagarjuna promised me a direction chance if Govinda Govinda becomes hit. But that film flopped. During the half way of Criminal film, Nagarjuna asked me about my prediction on Criminal. I told him that this subject is not suitable for Telugu audience and it would become a flop. I told him that however sophisticated the hero is, if his wife is brutally murdered, he would like to take revenge in his own way. The revenge might be filing a case in court or killing the villain. It depends on the path the hero would choose to execute. But in this film, hero would become a 'fugitive', who is on the run, which is too artificial. Nagarjuna again told me that he would give me a direction chance if Criminal becomes a hit. It also turned out to be a damp squib. Then Nagarjuna told me that all his judgments about accepting scripts are turning against him. He said that he would give me a break when his judgments about films started working for him.

Krishna Vamsi was making Ninne Pelladatha at that time. He asked me to assist him for that film. But I was not that comfortable as it might make Nagarjuna feel guilty about it, as he promised me movie chances twice and I predicted that both films would bomb. But Krishna Vamsi asked Nagarjuna about it and told me that he would love having me in the crew of Ninne Pelladatha.

During that period, I was also narrating stories for other heroes. I narrated one subject to Raja Sekhar first. Then I narrated another story to Chiranjeevi who were planning to make a film in the direction of Upendra. I also narrated stories to Venkatesh, Jagapati Babu, D Rama Naidu, Paritala Ravi and Chakri. But nothing worked out well for me. I approached Srikanth and he told me that he is totally occupied, without even listening to my story. I approached Pawan Kalyan. I really liked his looks, which are so different from the stereotype hero looks. In fact, I felt that he would become superstar one day. Allu Aravind , Chiranjeevi and Nagababu listened to my story for Pawan Kalyan. They liked it and asked me to get a good producer for the film, which could not happen. I did not have access to go to Bala Krishna at that time. Then I realized that I should give what they want. 'manam bendakaayala gurinchi cheppataaniki velte, vallu vankayala gurinchi vinataaniki prepare ayyivunte … manam emi cheppinaa nachadu'. I was kind of frustrated with opportunities slipping from my hand at the last moment. But, at the same time, I was positively charged to motivate myself to move ahead with renewed vigor.

After listening to the story of Ninne Pilladatha, which was inspired from the feel good Hindi movies like QSQT, MPK, HAHK and DDLJ, I predicted that it would become a super hit. Nagarjuna felt happy and again promised me that he would start a film with me if Ninne Pelladatha becomes a hit.

During the making of Ninne Pelladatha movie, I liked the girl who acted as Nagarjuna sister in that movie. I wanted to marry her. We liked each other, but she does not belong to my caste. Her mother is a Raju and father is a Brahmin. I do not have any preferences about castes. But my parents were very orthodox and particular about caste.

My parents had two expectations from me. The first one was that I should pursue higher education, but I went into films without intimating them. I did not disclose about my profession to them till I worked for Janaki Ramudu. At that time, my sister was getting married and there was financial crisis in my parent's place. I gathered all my savings (around thirty five thousand rupees) and sent them money saying that I joined films and this is what I earned in terms of monitory aspects all those years. All my friends invested the same amount of money in real estate in Chennai and each one had assets worth Rs 50 lakhs now. I never spent money on smoking, drinking and other such bad habits, so my only expenses were food and tickets for movies. The second expectation my parents had from me was my marriage. I did not want to disappoint my parents. I showed the girl to them and cajoled them to agree for the marriage. My wife's name is Geeta. She also acted in Krishna Vamsi's Sindhooram opposite Ravi Teja.

Ninne Pelladatha was a memorable film for me as it gave me a professional break (Sri Seetha Ramula Kalyanam Chootamu Rarandi) and personal break (marriage with Geeta).

Nagarjuna announced Sri Seetaramula Kalyanam Chootamu Rarandi (SSRKCR) with me as director. I told him that I wanted to introduce new cast. He backed me to the hilt. People started detracting and discouraging Nagarjuna by saying that films with new cast would not work. I told them that films like Tenemanasulu with Krishna and Ram Mohan worked. In SSRKCR I dealt with a legend like ANR and a raw talent like Venkat. All those who got a break through Nagarjuna and Annapurna studios shined well in the industry, as Nagarjuna has the unique ability of spotting multitalented people. Once Nagarjuna gives responsibility to us, he never interferes in our work and leaves complete onus on us by provides excellent back up as a producer. The only unpleasant moment during the making of SSRKCR was the unfortunate demise of my father. He was not there to see his son as a successful director.

At that time big directors like Dasari Narayana Rao, K Raghavendra Rao and Krishna Vamsi made Kalyana Praptirastu, Paradesi and Sindhooram respectively. But all these films were big time flops. This did not deter from making SSRKCR with full conviction and confidence. SSRKCR was released and got success talk. After SSRKCR became a super hit, I got around 26 offers.

I strongly feel that however harsh the film might be, we can bring in a flavor of pleasantness into the film with good music. As a director, I like Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai and Ramesh Sippy in Hindi. In Telugu, I like K Raghavendra Rao, Dasari Narayana Rao, K Viswanath, Bapu and Ram Gopal Varma. Among the recent Hindi directors I like Aditya Chopra, Sooraj Barajatya and Karan Johar. But I feel Sanjay Leela Bhansali is above all of the contemporary directors. If a few directors disturb our minds with their drab and dull movies, directors like these dazzle us with their delightful films.

Part Two of interview

Then Nagarjuna asked me to do a film with him as hero. Hari Krishna was the producer of Pattabhisekham and during the making of that film he used to treat me as his own brother. He is very fond of food and used to treat me a lot with different kinds of food. As I was new at Chennai, I did not know how to handle forks and chopsticks. He used to always ask me to accompany him for lunches and dinners. At that time I asked him to continue acting in films. He used to brush that suggestion off. But when I came to know that he accepted a brief ferocious role in Sreeramulayya, I decided that it is the right time to approach Hari Krishna. When I requested him to play elder brother to Nagarjuna in 'Seetaramaraju', he gladly accepted.

The film 'Seetaramaraju' was released and it became a good hit. But this film faced stiff competition from other faction films like 'Samarasimha Reddy' and 'Anthahpuram', which were released around 45 days prior to Seetaramaraju's release. Two weeks prior to Seetarama Raju's release, Hari Krishna came out of TDP and established his own political outfit. Because of this the NTR following he had got split. There might be faults committed by me as director as well. Another reason is that Seetarama Raju became a heavy film with less entertainment.

During that period I came across Mahesh Babu and narrated him a story. Initially we thought of having two fresh heroines for this venture. But due to certain pressures, we had to cast Simran and Sakshi Sivanand. The first half of 'Yuvaraju' was not up to the expectations. The audience felt that the cine mileage (cinema mileage = experience in terms of number of movies) of heroines is more than that of hero in that film. The kid Teja, who acted as son of Chiranjeevi in 'Choodalani Vundi', acted as son of Mahesh Babu, which made it a little difficult for regular cinegoers to appreciate. He did a terrific job though. The movie came up to 'reasonably good range' just because of the way I treated the film in the second half. As per the trade pundits - among Mahesh Babu's films - only Raja Kumarudu and Yuvaraju satisfied all the buyers in terms of content and trade aspects.

'Yuvaraju' got delayed due to extra days of shooting. I was blamed for the delay and a talk was spread against me that I delayed the project and there by resulted in the increase of the budget, which is a baseless rumor. Because of this rumor, not a single producer approached me after the release of 'Yuvaraju'. I had 26 offers after SSRKCR, had 13 producers approached me after 'Seetarama Raju' and had no offers after Yuvaraju.

No producer - not even one of those 26 people who were after me at one point of time - bothered to approach me after Yuvaraju. Not a single person told me that he believed in my talent and the ability of making good films and offered me an opportunity do a film for them in the limited budget they could afford. This made me feel sad.

An engineering student studies for 4 years and does a job for 30 years. A medical student studies for 5 years and works for 25 years. But I worked for 13 years in this cinema field before becoming a director. Hence I decided that I should work in this film industry successfully as director for at least 13 years.

During that time, two people inspired me. These inspired technicians are R Narayana Murthy and EVV Satyanarayana. When Narayana murthy commercially failed as an artist, he started a 'Sneha Chitra' banner and mobilized funds from friends to make movies. He created a niche for himself in the market and succeeded. EVV Satya Narayana is a very talented director. But he was also not receiving any offers at one time. During that period, he started EVV Cinema banner and produced 'Chala Bagundi' and made it a big hit. I realized that I should not let my talent go in drain because nobody was willing to offer me any films.

When I had Hari Krishna as hero in proposal, my friends who were to fund the film rejected it as they did not want Hari Krishna in the film because he failed after floating an independent party. Also, he was sitting idle. When I adhered to my decision of casting Hari Krishna, my friends dropped from the project. Then I mortgaged the flat in which I am staying and brought money from financiers at high interest rates. When a director gets an idea for making a film, he should make it as soon as possible. If you postpone the film and delay the project, the fun of doing it would vanish. I could have approached producers and narrated the subject to them. Even if they liked it, I am sure that with the kind of cast we had in mind for the film - it was going to be released in deficit and no producer would risk doing that project.

Then I started my own production banner - Bommarillu, which means a house that makes films or a house that exhibits films. I did not want to attempt a youth film because by the time my film releases, people would be fed up with youth films. I decided to have a story that has multiple pairs, that belongs to different generation and age groups. My Guru Raghavendra Rao inspired me a lot. Whatever films he did, he made sure that people of all classes and centers enjoy the film with same passion. With his inspiration, I made L3 (Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo) film.

About Nagarjuna:

Nagarjuna studies people from a distance and makes his own opinions based upon his observations. Once he forms an opinion about you, it cannot be changed. When he announced SSRKCR with all newcomers, lots of people discouraged Nagarjuna. But Nagarjuna went ahead with SSRKCR and his power of judgment proved right. I am indebted to Nagarjuna throughout my life for the break he has given to me.

About Mahesh Babu:

The greatness about Mahesh Babu is that he signed me as the director without watching my two films. He was so much inspired by the storyline that he asked me to find a good producer to make that film. He okayed the project after listening to the script in just 30 minutes. Since Mahesh Babu kept blind faith on me, I wanted to prove myself by giving a good hit. I fighted against all odds to make that film. But some people created a bad propaganda against me prior to the release of Yuvaraju. I am very much thankful to them as they made me more determined and their flack generated more energy levels in me.

About SSRKCR:

In my first movie SSRKCR, I had a caption "trust love", which means if you trust love it would become a power and guard you.

About Seetarama Raju:

This indicates that if any person indulges in violence, his death would always happen in the form of a murder. We thought of putting a caption 'Don't get into violence' for this film.

About Yuvaraaju:

In this film, I broke the rules than going in a routine way. This film has a caption that 'if you love somebody - express it'. This caption formed the base for lots of blockbuster love stories that came in Tollywood after Yuvaraju.

Multi starrers:

After a long time in Telugu film industry, we shot a film Seetaramaraju with multiple stars. We balanced the film in such a way that neither the nandamuri fans nor the Akkineni fans felt that their star got a raw deal.

About L3 (Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo):

The mellifluous song of NTR's grandeur film 'Maya Bazaar' inspired the name of the film. Every Telugu movie fan must have listened to that song for at least 100 times during his/her life span. This song was very popular during those golden days. That is why I named this film as L3. This song has a very addictive feel, and mildness in its lyrics. From its musical and the visual aspects, we could feel the softness of that song. Actually this is the first film in the Telugu industry where a caption was made in Telugu language. The caption was "okasari preminchi chodandi". This film says that love starts the problem and the same love solves the problem. So I actually broke the rules of the film industry than being in a regular way. I was always interested in breaking the rules. When I was sitting in the recording room, I told Keervaani not to compromise in the quality of the music. In my opinion, Keeravani is the best director not only in AP but also in India. When I think about song's lyrics, its my God father Veturi who comes to my mind first. Its Sirivennela whom I like after Veturi. I felt the recording of the songs were not good for the first time so I had to repeat the recording again. This was done to bring the nativity of the songs by making them sung by keervani. The others songs were sung by Kumar saanu, Sonu Nigam, Sukhvinder singh, Chitra and Sunitha.

When I planned to make this film, I first thought of actors; Hari Krishna, Prakash raj, and Rajendra Prasad. For those actors, I selected Bhanu priya opposite Hari Krishna, Ramya Krishna for Prakash Raj, and finally Sanghavi for Rajendra Prasad. Unfortunately Prakash Raj was banned by MAA association and Ramya Krishna was busy with Tamil films. At that time, I also thought of selecting Sai kumar but I finally took Suman for that character. The reason behind my confidence in taking Suman was he did a very good comedy character in the movie "Peddinti Alludu". I choose Rachana for Suman. I choose Ravi teja for Rajendra Prasad's character but Ravi teja was already doing solo hero characters. So he was dropped. Then I immediately consulted Vineeth for this character and he accepted this. Venkat was a rookie when I picked him for SSRKCR. I extracted a decentperformance from him. But at the same time I felt that he should polish himself in acting and dances. Hence I suggested him to join a film institute to learn things. But due to some internal pressures best known to him, he committed to other films and lost the unique advantage he got by acting in SSRKCR. I felt really sad for him as he was my find. With that experience in mind, I picked Aditya (who is a stage artist from Mumbai) so that he could have a smooth career ahead. (he is having very good offers now)

In this movie, I took Lakshmi for a negative character because I wanted to do something different rather than taking Bombay actors for this character. With her, I selected a very good group of artists to support her character as a family. I showed a very good environment rather than showing things shown in the old movies. I never comprised in the costumes so I got all of them designed at Bombay. I thought of starting the movie during the summer but unfortunately unseasoned rains spoiled it. A song which was to be shot in 4 days took 8 days time. Similarly while the comedy sequences were being shot, Venu Madhav was put in jail. Even Rachana was down with chicken pox and could not attend the shooting which was evntually postponed for 16 days. So we had lot of problems like that. At one spot of the shooting, many of our crew members were stung by honeybees and were hospitalized for few days. Lakshmi had a problem with her leg and she too was hospitalized for few days. Even costume designer went out of country and we could not proceed with the shooting. As I was the producer and director of this movie, I could not compromise. So I had to spend a lot of money due to these problems. At one stage, I was totally bankrupt and had nothing to spend for this movie. Moreover I did not have any sensational hits till then, so nobody was willing to support me. A person named "Sudhakar" (the GM of Mayuri Distributors) who listened my film songs was very much impressed. He also said that I am a minimum guarantee director just like the Mr. Dependable Dravid in Indian cricket. He told Ramoji Rao (of Eenadu group) about my movie so they financed me to exhibit the movie in the theatres and promoted this movie. At one stage of the movie, even my co-technicians and other crew did not have any confidence in me and they were betting whether my movie will be released or not and even if it released, it would not be a success. I was really hurt by this incident but I had confidence in the audience that they will definitely make my movie a big success. My family and my wife's relatives were really helping me financially as well as morally and with Ramoji Rao's support, I was able to release the movie. I had to cross a lot of barriers like people torturing me to give their money back before my film release. Until then I only heard about "nararoopa raksheshulu", and with these incidents I could see them alive. A lot of people said that if I could finish this movie within 2.75 crore budget then I could easily get my money back. But what happened here was I had to spend much more money due to all these problems. People were really laughing at me and they were saying that I will not able to release this movie. One thing was sure, I really thought I could celebrate 100 days function at my birth place "Gudiwada". I had that confidence in me that I would make it happen.

After the release of my movie, all the audience really appreciated me a lot. Even in the publicity of this movie, we never compromised at any point. In this matter, Gemini Kiran helped me a lot and cooperated with me. During this movie release, there was a heavy competition among the movies. Even in this competition, my movie was doing very well. It was released with 50 prints and later on we released 35 more prints. It ran for 50 days in 50+ centers and completed 100 days in 40 centers. Even though there weren't big stars in this movie except Hari Krishna, the movie went on very well with good record collections. Hari Krishna is a very good person with straightforward mentality. I can surely say that he didn't do anything bad in politics. In all the aspects, the movie was a big success. This was a big plus point as well as a turning point for me. In all the areas where it was released such as Orissa, Karnataka, Ceded, Nizam, and other parts of Andhra, the movie ran for 50 days. I was extremely happy because movie was a big success in these areas where it was very difficult thing to do without any big stars. I was very happy to see my movie running successfully in outer state centers like Parlakimidi. I can't say whether I can or not make this type of big budget movies in future. As a director and producer, this movie was a big turning point and really boosted my confidence.

The main important aspect of this movie was it really attracted all sort of audience unlike typical college love stories. It also had a mass appeal so this was accepted by all sort of different generation groups. It's entirely a family based movie where everybody in a family can view the movie and enjoy. It had absolutely no trace of vulgarity in the songs and in any part of the movie. Hari Krishna did a very good job here. People enjoyed watching him. They felt as if they were watching his father acting again. These movies had class elements in its first half and mass appeal in the second half, so all sort of audience enjoyed watching this movie even at small centers. The movie had 3 plus points, one is novelty in freshness, second is the music, and third point was Hari krishna's performance. About the comedy part of the film, the main actors themselves had a comedy character in the script unlike a routine film which has few comedians doing it. In this movie, Suman and Vineeth did the comedy sequences with ease and similarly Hari Krishna. In the second half, Hari Krishna and Lakshmi combination scenes really had a good impact on the movie's success. About the title of this movie, the first "Lahari" stands for emotion, second "Lahari" is for love and the last one is for entertainment. With these aspects in my movie, I really had confidence and never backed away from my decision to release the movie along with the big movies. The performance of all the actors and actresses was excellent. Hari Krishna's acting as well as dialogues was one of the important aspects in the movie's success. His dialogue such as "ee velu maa nanaloni power .. ee velu naa mesumloni pogaru" was very catchy and people really loved it. When people saw hero Aditya on magazines and TV promos, they felt that he was not suitable for hero role. But when the same people saw him on the big screen, they opined that Aditya was perfect fit for that role.

About the combination of the characters in L3

Hari Krishna and Bhanu Priya: He is dynamic, frank, and straightforward but she is soft, emotional and sensitive. This combination was very interesting for the audience.

Suman and Rachna: He is shy, coward, but wants to put up a brave front. She is shy but likes her beau to be a brave man.

Vineeth and Sanghavi: He is atheist and she is worshipper of god. Due to their opposing character combinations, people were curious as to how they were going to live together.

Aditya and Ankitha: Both are young and fun loving. First, the heroine loves him but hero does not have interest and later vice versa. So it had very interesting aspect in their characters, which obviously was very curious for the people about their union.

All these contrasting pairings were the plus points for the movie's success.

Songs: All the songs were excellently composed and their lyrics were equally good. One of the songs was something different which was made like an old classy traditional one. The lyrics, music, setting, and even the costumes were specially designed which brought our nostalgic moments of that golden film era.

Violence: We had strong violent scenes during the last part of the movie which were essential for the climax. In that situation, the dialogue such as "naa thalli thandri kshemanga unaarantey emarapatulo naa kallaku maikum kammavachu" "kaani vaalu edaina pramathamlo unaarantey, naa kantipapa pedhadi avuthundhi, jagratha peruguthundhi, Randiraa". These dialogues had a strong impact, justifying the violence in the climax scenes.

About Me, Myself:

My aim in life was to achieve something big and to see myself as one of the senior directors in the Telugu industry. Till now, I am really happy for what I did. My future plans are to do good projects giving something informative and useful to the people along with entertainment.

I am a very sensitive person and never like to hear anything bad about me from others. I like to take risk in making big budget movies in my own banner "Bommarillu". I would really like to make all my movie producers happy by taking only good subjects for their films. I would certainly like to work with those producers who respect my talent.

I feel that stars definitely are higher in caliber and it is they who attract the crowd than the technicians. I am a firm believer in this as it was the star NTR who ignited the spirit and passion in me towards Telugu films and he directly contributed as the inspiration for me to become a director.

Around 36 producers are interacting and contacting me nowadays with good offers. So I would certainly take the best subject and make the producers successful. Till now, all my producers were successful and happy with me.

Ambitions in my life:

I wish I could fulfill all my thoughts and ambitions. Till now I could accomplish only a few things successfully. I always wanted to go in for a love marriage. Fortunately, I fell in love with a girl and married her. I am very lucky to have a wife like her. We have very good understanding between us. I love three people in my life; my father, my mother and my wife. Unfortunately, my father died during my first movie.

I have one big ambition in my life, I would like to direct a Hindi movie and make it a big success with 250 crores profit. I also have offers to make such a movie, so I am keenly planning on that. If any director makes a successful blockbuster movie within his first 1 or 2 movies, he would certainly get very confident and would flourish brighter soon in his life. Even though all my movies are successful, they certainly aren't huge blockbusters. Only L3 gave me the inspiration till now. Even though I tasted a huge hit little late, I certainly feel that this is the right time for me. Given my nature, I listen to everybody but finally I take my own decision following my instincts.

Message for the director wannabes:

I definitely would like to say that direction isn't an ordinary job. Every director should have a strong grip over storyline, selection of artists, music, recording, make-up, costumes, sets, production designing and all other aspects involved in making a movie. He should able to have a individual taste whether its good or bad. Only with these qualities, a person can be a full-fledged director and can stand for long term in the film industry.

Message to idlebrain visitors:

I would really thank and appreciate idlebrain for introducing me and giving me this opportunity to tell about myself to the people.

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