Sreenu Vytla reveals his penchant for entertainment

Karthik Pasupulate traces the fascinating journey of director Sreenu Vytla from his days as a dreamy eyed rookie to one of the top filmmakers of the Telugu industry!

It was around this time back in 1989 when the humid south-westerly’s (or monsoons) were sweeping across the Bay of Bengal, on their way to mainland south India. An 18 year old native of Kandulapalem village in East Godavari district was boarding a train for Chennai (then Madras.) He’d just finished class 12 and no he was not going on a summer break. He was taking off chasing his childhood dream - becoming a filmmaker, leaving behind life as he had known it up until that point. Well, his folks weren’t intimated for obvious reasons. Ah! Ain’t it good to be 18!

“Films were always special for me. But after watching Mani Ratnam’s Nayakan, I decided I wanted to be a director,” says Sreenu Vytla. In hindsight - which is a nice thing to have - it might seem like he was on the train that would take him to his destiny, but back then it did not seem like that with just Rs. 70 in his pocket. He had no way of knowing it at least. “For all I knew, Madras was home to the film industry and I wanted to be a director,” says Sreenu.

He did not have to wonder about where to go for too long. A co-passenger who was travelling to Vijayawada turned out to be a messiah! “He told me about a close friend, JSV Chowdary, who was then working as an assistant director in Madras. I quickly noted down his address hoping Mr Chowdary would be kind enough to give shelter to a friend of his friend for a couple of days.” Now you do need desperate measures to deal with desperate situations.

The train finally arrived, more than a little delayed at the Madras central railway station. The monsoon was there to greet the young man and he realised it was more than the heavy showers he’d have to brave. “The state bus service was halted due to a strike that day. So I walked down all the way to Malapudi Mansion in T Nagar, which was where Chowdary lived.”

Drenched in rain he reached Malapudi Mansion and what’s more, Chowdary bought his story and allowed him to stay over for a couple of days. His next immediate mission was to find a job before his Rs. 70 ran out. “That’s when I met Krishna Vamsi who was also staying in room no 53 at the Malapudi Mansion along with a couple of friends. They took an instant liking to me and were kind enough to allow me a place in their already cramped single room housing.”

Sreenu finally found himself a job as an apprentice with director Chalasani Ramarao for his film Prananiki Pranam. “I wrote a letter for people back home. I had written to them earlier but did not disclose my whereabouts,” he admits. Pronto, his elder brother came down hoping to knock some sense into his kid brother. Theirs was a big joint family that did not think much about films or filmmaking. “But my friends convinced him that I would have a bright future and he went back allowing me to pursue my dream,” he says.

Well it was not the end of his troubles though. “The film turned out to be a dud and things came back to a naught once again,” he says smiling.
It was around that time that Ram Gopal Varma’s Shiva released. Sreenu loved the film and moved to Hyderabad hoping to join RGV as an assistant. “Things did not quite work out that way and I worked for director Sagar instead.”

He worked as an AD for many years with quite a few directors. In 1996 he decided it was time he did a project on his own. “I worked on a story and producer Sambi Reddy liked it and came forward to produce it. The film was called Aparichitudu! Rajasekhar was to play the lead in the film but then the producer ran into financial troubles and the project had to be shelved.”

Sreenu was obviously heartbroken as all his attempts to revive the project met with dead ends. That’s when he hit upon a film called Nee Kosam. “The film was made on a shoe-string budget of Rs 38 lakhs. It was much appreciated and even went on to win seven Nandi awards.”
It was also Ravi Teja’s first successful film as a lead. He’d acted in Sindooram earlier but the film was not a BO success. It would be fair to say Nee Kosam turned out to be a turning point for both Sreenu Vytla and Ravi Teja. It was also the beginning of a very successful partnership, since the actor-director duo has produced hits like Venky and Dubai Seenu.

He followed it up with smashing hits like Anandam and Venky which established Sreenu Vytla as an entertainer par excellence in the Telugu industry. Then the biggest opportunity of his career came along. “When I was asked to direct Chiranjeevi, in Andarivadu I just jumped at the prospect. It’s a huge privilege and very few directors get an opportunity to work with someone like the Megastar.”

Unfortunately Andarivadu proved to be a dampener at the BO, but Sreenu Vytla has not given up hope yet. “I hope to make a blockbuster with one of his successors either Pawan Kalyan or Charan one day,” he smiles. That would be something to look forward to, but for the moment though, it is his next film with Mahesh Babu that has got everybody talking.

Sreenu is unwilling to let out too many details about the project but lets us into a few interesting things. “I am very excited about the project. It’s going to be a grand one. The first half of the film is going to be set in north India.”