I’m a ‘survival’ producer

He might be one of the top producers in the industry, but Suresh Babu is a family man at heart, akin to his father Ramanaidu. It’s his bond with the family that has barred him from heading to Mumbai and produce Hindi films. He says, “I can’t stay away from my house and if I don’t see my family for two days my life is empty. Seeing them everyday and my brother’s (Venkatesh) family often is a part of my life and I don’t want to alter it. It’s an affordable weakness,” he says, while adding, “I’m currently producing a Bollywood film with another producer, but I haven’t been to sets yet.” In a chatathon ahead of ‘Drishyam’ release, he speaks about studios, why the industry is unable to make films on par with that of Hollywood and why he believes that the industry will shift to everywhere across the two States.

The ace producer says that he was keen on a family-oriented detective drama for Venky and even asked his writers to come up with such ideas, but to no avail. “That is when I watched ‘Drishyam’; I was taken aback. I had to turn my head to see Venky multiple times during the screening in sheer excitement. I felt the director, Jeetu Joseph, had got it spot on. After the screening I said to Venky, ‘What’? He replied, ‘I’m ready to do the film. Are you ready to make it’? I had no second thoughts and within ten days of the original’s release, I acquired the rights and we went on floors early March,” he recalls.

Owner of a popular studio, he believes the condition of studios in Hyderabad is poor. “Studios can never make money; some other business has to support the physical shooting infrastructure. Some studios are now defunct while some other may follow suit. Studios are surviving only because of TV. Out of 150 films releasing every year, only 25 are shot in studios; small budget films prefer to shoot outdoors,” he says.

For Tollywood’s standards to improve, he wants the core team associated with a film to dream big. “Rajamouli has a goal – that he should make Mahabharata in Hollywood. Likewise Shankar had a goal to make a Rs 100 crore film when he was an assistant director. The issue here is that most of the producers want to survive and clear off their debts with their productions. My father dreamt of constructing a studio and fulfilled it. I did not dream. I’m a ‘survival’ producer. I take steps to ensure that my projects head in the right direction. My two sons are dreamers – Rana wants to be a global star while Abhiram wants to make films in all languages. Only when you dream big, you can work towards it. We have facilities to churn out an international product, but we don’t have a script,” he states.

On the issue of industry shifting to another place, he says shifting may take place only to locations which are conducive for shooting and where there are sops. “It might shift to Tada, Vijayawada or Visakhapatnam; it all boils down to the comfort of a filmmaker. The next generation directors might go to a village, shoot there and might edit the film there itself; since it’s a digital world one need not come back to Hyderabad for editing; he can edit the film on his laptop. I personally see the industry spreading across the two States in five years.”

On a lighter note, he feels guilty for not making a film with Rana under Suresh Productions. “As far as his career is concerned I have done nothing great except supporting his efforts. This year I’ll start a film with him. I have three to four scripts ready for him. Hanu Raghavapudi is ready with ‘Kavacham’ script whereas Parasuram is fine tuning ‘Chuttalabbai’. Puri Jagannadh and Sridhar Raghavan are also working on a script for him,” he concludes.