Suresh Babu is my mentor

Writer GS Rao, best remembered for writing ‘Samba’, has turned director with ‘Nenu Naa Friends’. Having started his career with Suresh Productions (SP) in the late 90s, he had given his inputs for a slew of prestigious productions from the banner, including ‘Ganesh’, ‘Kalisundam Raa’ and ‘Nuvvu Leka Nenu Lenu’ among others. A mechanical engineer by profession, he has also been to the film sets monitoring the shooting activities. The writer-turned-director says, “After ‘Nuvvu Leka Nenu Lenu’, I’ve moved out of SP and started penning my own scripts. Message-oriented subjects are my forte and ‘Samba’ was one such subject. Though the film failed to meet the expectations of the audience, I narrated stories to top heroes, including Chiranjeevi and Venkatesh. While some stories almost turned into films, other drafts failed to get any takers. ”

Associated with ace producer Suresh Babu for a major part of his career, he considers him as his mentor. “He was the one who spotted the spark in me. After my attempts as a director too failed, I’ve left the industry. He called me one day,and said that I should be patient and that I should wait for my time. He also spoke about the way his dad, who was almost bankrupt once, bounced back with ‘Prem Nagar’.”

Clearing misconceptions about the producer, he says, “He is one of the most genuine persons I’ve came across in the industry. If he likes your storyline, he gives you a guest house, required time and a set of writers to work on it. He is crystal clear at the very outset, as he says, ‘If you convince me with the whole subject, I’ll give you an opportunity.’” In fact, Rao was supposed to helm Rana’s (Suresh Babu’s elder son) second film, ‘Kopam’. “He liked my line and I took eight to nine months to develop it. However, I couldn’t take him into confidence with the whole script. I’m responsible for the film not taking shape,” he recalls.

Speaking about ‘Nenu Naa Friends’, he says, “It’s a youth-centric film revolving around education and friendship. The 16-minute climax of the film will be a major attraction; it will be akin to the surprise factor that comes during the interval scene of ‘Samba’. I’ve shown the film to Suresh Babu and he is distributing it across the two States this Friday.”