14 October 2022
Hyderabad
KK Radha Mohan worked in East Africa for 35 years. His lifelong passion is to make cinemas. He started producing films in 2009. And by now he has produced 10 films. He keeps a low profile despite making so many films. Here is our exclusive interview about what made him such a passionate producer -
Background
I have completed engineering in REC Warangal. I worked for Indian Telephone Industries, Bangalore. Then I went to East Africa. I worked in East Africa (Kenya, Nairobi and Tanzania) for almost 35 years. I have always been interested in performing arts since childhood. I used to participate in plays and skits in school time and also when I was working in East Africa. I was interested in film production. But I didn’t have enough guts and financial resources during my earlier days of my career.
Film production
In 2007, Priyadarshan Ram came to Kenya and met me through a common friend. He asked me if I could join in production of his debut feature film ‘Toss’. Toss was the first full length digital movie made in Telugu film industry. People were making fun of us when we said we were going completely digital. 6-7 years later, the entire Telugu film industry got converted into digital filmmaking right from canning to screening. I was a co-producer for Toss and I spent 6 months on my project.
For me time is important as I would be making money if I work in South Africa. If I work in films, I lose money as an investment and on top of it I would also lose money because I skip my earning job. It was a tricky situation.
I am a devotee of Puttaparthi Sai Baba and opened the Sri Sathya Sai Arts banner. Director Samudra approached me and said that he has dates of Jagapathi Babu for a script called ‘Adhinetha’. I didn’t lose much money. But, there was more appreciation for this political film on TV than on the big screen.
Sampath Nandi has worked as a writer for Toss film. He approached me with a small-budget script. I told him that we need popular actors for this script and signed Varun Sandesh and Nisha Aggarwal. Yemaindi Ee Vela was a trendsetting bold film. Unfortunately Ram Charan’s Orange released in the following week. We couldn’t hold theaters like Gokul where it was going housefull. Success of this film led to films like Ee Rojullo and Bus Stop later. Boys were throning to theatres, but girls and women were watching the pirated print on their computers as the content was bold.
Then I made a film called 50% Love. I bought the rights of a Malayalam film and half of the original footage we used and the remaining half we reshot. In 2015, I made a film with Aadi Sai Kumar titled ‘Pyar Mein Padipoyane’. I didn’t do well at the Box Office.
That’s when I got a call from Sampath Nandi. He has spent a couple of years for a film with Pawan Kalyan and it didn’t materialize. He told me that Ravi Teja liked a script titled Bengal Tiger. Sampath wanted me to produce it though Ravi Teja was referring to other producers. I traveled to India and met Ravi Teja. He agreed to do a film with me. It’s a big recognition for me to produce a film with Ravi Teja. We spent lavishly and it cost around 33 crores to do that movie. It became a hit.
Then I made a film titled ‘Meelo Evaru Kotiswarudu’ in the direction of E Sathibabu (protege of EVV). It was a comedy film. We released the film during demonitization time and it didn’t work at the box office as people didn’t want to spend much money. The viewers who saw it on TV have enjoyed the film.
Later I made a film with Gopichand titled Pantham. I got identified with the hero character of a Millionaire coming to India and seeing problems here. It was a mass film with a message. We started Orey Bujjiga with Raj Tharun in 2019 in the direction of Konda Vijay Kumar (Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde fame). We did good business for the film and scheduled the release for March 25th 2020. We did a lot of promotions. A lockdown was announced on 22 March. I gave back all advances. We had to release the film on the Aha OTT platform. They have acknowledged that Orey Bujjiga has contributed a lot to Aha.
Sampath Nandi approached me with the subject of Odela Railway Station - it is a crime thriller based on real incidents. Sampath was doing Sitimaar at that time and he gave the story and set the project up. This film was meant for OTT as the runtime is 90 minutes only.
Phani Krishna narrated the story to me in November 2021. Aadi Saikumar is cast in ‘Crazy Fellow’. It's a clean film and the music is good. Bala Tripura Sundari song became popular. I am hopeful that people would like the film.
Since Adhipati, you have made 10 films. What is the budget of all these films together?
The budget of Bengal Tiger was 33 crores. Pantham cost us 22 crores. Remaining 8 films cost me around 3 crores each. Cumulative budget of all these films is around 80 crores. My investment in it is around 25 crores and remaining 55 crores were generated through advances and sales of digital/satellite rights.
You keep a low profile and you have been making films for 13 years. It’s more like a service than a business proposition to you?
I believe in the saying ‘manava seve madhava seva’. I lost some money while making these films. But the money I lost is excess money I kept aside to fulfill my passion for making films. At the same time, the money I invested has given employment to many people and a turnover of 80 crores over 13 years would have helped some needy people in terms of wages as well. I take it as indirect service to the people.
I keep a low profile. I don’t have any bad habits. Not many people know about me though I made over 10 films. I don’t socialize and I was operating from East Africa till 2018. I moved back to India for good around 4 years back.
I try to help people around in a personal capacity though I don't publicize about it. Especially during covid time.
Future projects?
I am doing a Hindi film with Ayush Sharma (brother in law of Salman Khan). We finished a schedule in Hyderabad and will do the next schedule in Mumbai. I also have a couple of Telugu projects in the pipeline.
