Did you take a look at the open letters written by idlebrain.com visitors?

First things first! I know that most of the guys who visit idlebrain.com are from USA and other foreign countries. And all these visitors watch pirated DVDs and videos. I am not answerable to such kind of people. And these guys do not have any moral right to write such open letters. First let them stop watching pirated DVDs and then they can write open letters and question my style of filmmaking! People rob India by staying in India. And these guys do not change even when they stay in abroad. They encourage piracy in abroad and take away the food from the filmmakers in India. I want you (Jeevi) to write this in the beginning of this interview.

Another thing is that I want to advertise about heroines for my next film. I am looking for heroines for my next venture 'Nijam'. Both of them should be of '17 - 19' age group. They should not have any inhibitions or reservations. They should be energetic. One of the heroines should have dark complexion. For me, Naomi Campbell is one of the most beautiful women in the world. But in India people have misconception that dark girls are not beautiful and they are not eligible to act in films. I want to change that perception with my film. I don't go by skin tone. I need another heroine who is extremely beautiful and voluptuous. All the interested girls can email me at [email protected] along with their resume and scanned portfolio. At the same time I request all the people not to apply for any other jobs like assistant directors, lyric writers, dialogue writers etc.

Tell us about Jayam

To be frank, Jayam is not liked by 80% of the visitors of web sites. 100% of the critics did not like Jayam.(read jeevi and gudipoodi reviews) But Jayam is a massive hit. It will end up as one of the top five films of the industry. This film would have easily become the top grossers of the industry if the distributors had released it with good number of prints. It was released with just 58 prints. For example, in Uttarandhra it was released with just 3 prints.

Jayam has 85% of good points and 15% of bad points. The so-called big wigs, cine pundits and critics of Telugu film industry go to Jayam with calculators and they compare each and every scene of Jayam with Nuvvu Nenu and evaluate it. They write down good points and bad points. They glorify the bad points to unreasonably high proportion and write a review to declare that Jayam is not going to work. But the common man goes to theater to get entertainment. He looks at the positive aspects and enjoys them. When positive points are more and negative points are less, the movie would become a massive hit. That's why a common man and critic are poles apart.

What are the strengths of 'Jayam'?

Actually Jayam is a multi-twined subject. Because of it, the emotional depth is more. Indian emotions and Indian traditions are merged into the storyline.

If you take any hit film, there would be a hero whose parents are killed by villains. The story deals with how he takes his revenge. In between, hero meets heroine and sings songs. This film has two main twines. One is revenge twine and other one is love twine.

Let me explain few of the various twines we have in Jayam ...

1. Pattilu (anklets): The maternal uncle of heroine adorns the heroine [Sada] with 'kaalla pattilu' when she is a kid and tells her that she should marry his son. Heroine's father likes those pattilu and tells her that she is like 'Maha Lakshmi'. Hero of the film [Nitin] falls in love with heroine because of the same pattilu. Even the communication between hero and heroines is through pattilu (by heroine) and whistle (by hero). Even when heroine is running away with hero in the climax, she adorns a rabbit, which they rescue, with those pattilu.

2. Villain's father punishes the kid villain a lot. Heroine's father asks villain's father not to punish like that as it makes the situation worse. The assistant of villain [Lakshmipati] says a comparison about 'Thonda mudiri Voosaravelli avadam'. The same comparison applies to villain [Gopichand] as well. This loop is continued in climax when the assistant Lakshmipati changes his party from that of villain to hero.

3. Hero uses a rope to extract honey from honeycomb. Again he uses the rope to meet heroine at her house. He uses it for the last time in climax to take away heroine who is about to get married to villain. In the beginning, it is shown that hero searched in forest to find out honeycomb, which shows that the hero is well versed with the forest. The same knowledge is used in the climax when hero manufactured a makeshift compass and takes away heroine in to jungle.

4. The most viable commercial point is 'poor vs rich', which is used even in English films like 'Titanic' 'Robinhood' etc. When the villan's gang destroys the house of hero, hero's mother warns hero that 'nuvvu aa pillani teesukuvachi pelli chesukokapothe nene ninnu narikestaanu' (encouraging the hero). This is the best dialogue and best moment of the film.

5. Next twine of the film is 'Vellavayya Vellu' dialogue and mannerism by the heroine. By using the same dialogue for different scenes, she got the maximum effect. Even in climax, she says 'Kottavayya Kottu' to hero with the same tempo. If you listen to 'Raanu Raanu' song of the film, she says 'Yellello Yello Yello' to the teasing hero. 'Jayam' is an example of perfect teamwork.

6. There is another twine of musical bond. We started off the movie with 'Veeri Veeri Gummadi Pandu' song and it continuously played through out the film at important points. In that song, Kula Sekhar wrote 'Idi Devudu aadina aata'. The entire game is played by the God in the film. It's not played by the characters. An idol of Vinayakudu is shown in the beginning of the movie and this tempo is carried throughout the film till the couple gets hold of Hanuman's (jendapai kapiraaju) flag at the end.

7. At the same time, I wanted my film to be secular. So I created Alibaba character to compensate the Hindu color that barges into the film with the Hanuman flag. Alibaba plays a vital role in the climax when he does namaaz to save hero from the villain.

I have given break to six actors in Jayam. All of them did very well. If you find anybody not performing well in the film, I take the blame on me.

The movie is a hit because of emotional teamwork by RP Patnaik, Kula Sekhar, Narayana Reddy, Sameer Reddy and Shankar. We share bondage, which is quite rare in many fields. Let me explain how other directors think when they fix up a cameraman. They think about how good the cameraman can the scenes and make it look very rich on the canvas. When the producer signs a music director, he thinks about the sale-ability of music director at that point of time. There is a massive difference in the way other directors do their films and how I do my film. My way of casting and filmmaking is entirely different from what other directors do. Why did D Suresh Babu or MS Raju take RP Patnaik as the music director? Because, they know that RP composes the music at a very low cost. But I sign technicians for my films because they understand my emotions and there is synchronization in our thought process. We don't look for money. If RP Patnaik calls me up and asks for 50 lakhs, I will send the money right away without expecting anything. If you look at the 'Vellavayya Vellu' sequence, Sameer Reddy used the camera in the right block for all the scenes.

Another thing is that no other big film was released along with Jayam. So people started comparing Jayam with my last film 'Nuvvu Nenu'.

There was a controversy during the shooting of 'Jayam' about the choreographer beating a dancer, which led to chaos in film chamber at Hyderabad. What exactly happened?

Let me tell you what exactly happened. We were canning 'Sabbasi' song on a train. I was giving instructions on a walkie-talkie and train started moving. At that time, when we were about to take the shot, a Hyderabad dancer was trying to woo a girl on the location. The roll was running. The dance director Shankar got irritated and slapped the dancer. This incident happened in Chintalapattu. That incident split the film industry into two groups. They argue that a Chennai dance master (Shankar - a Telugu guy settled in Madras) slapped a Hyderabad dancer. These guys in Hyderabad created a fake certificate that the dancer's backbone is severely injured. But I know what exactly happened. We admitted him in Apollo hospital near by and got the certificate that he was treated for urinary infection. This is what small-minded people with big plans try to do, which would eventually never work! This incident is nothing. I have seen bigger things in life!!

Tell us about Nijam, your next venture

It is also a love story, which has two kinds of loves. One is between a boy and girl and another between a boy and the country. This film would be having one hero and two heroines. And it's going to be very very (Teja emphasizes on using two very's) violent. That film might be certified 'A' as well. I want to show my solution for a corruption-free India. But I don't give any message through this film. I give only entertainment for 2 and half hours.

Are you considering Allu Arjun for any of your future films?

I feel sad that I could not stick to my word of making Jayam with Allu Arjun as the hero. It is the only guilty feeling I have now. Allu Arjun is a hard worker and very talented guy. The only reason why I did not cast him for Jayam is that he is not suitable for that character. After watching Jayam, you will definitely agree with me. But, I am making a story and will narrate that story to him and if he likes it, he would be the hero in that film. I owe Allu Arjun a film and I will definitely do it, provided Arjun takes independent decisions!!