Chandoo Mondeti is the talk of the town

Director Chandoo Mondeti is on cloud nine. Days after the release of his maiden venture ‘Karthikeya’, the likes of VV Vinayak, Sukumar, and Prasad V Potluri have ranged him up to congratulate on the success. He even met Allu Arjun in person. “He liked the film and spoke about it at length. I even got a call from Supriya garu (Nagarjuna’s niece). PVP offered me a film; I would be taking a call on the offer after the promotional activities of Karthikeya,” he gushes. “A couple of Bollywood production houses have approached our producer for the Hindi remake rights.”

But before the release, things were not as rosy as they were now, for him. The film was delayed for a considerable time and since August it had been waiting to open in cinema halls. “We were to shoot at a temple near Kakinada sometime back but as the united Andhra agitation was at its peak, we had to call off the shoot. We lost one month due to it and it took almost two months to find another apt temple since the story revolves around a holy place. After the completion of the film we sent it for certification but as the film had some shots featuring animals, the censor board asked us to get an NOC from the Animal Welfare Group,” he says, while adding, “It took some time to get an NOC and in the meanwhile, we went through financial woes as the film got belated. And finally when we wanted to release it early August, big films like ‘Sikindar’ and ‘Rabhasa’ booked their berths in the same month.”

A big fan of superstar Nagarjuna ever since he saw ‘Allari Alludu’, the director is keen to narrate a script to him. “I came to the industry to meet him but slowly things started falling in place. I started off along with Nikhil and Sudheer Varma (‘Swamy Ra Ra’ director). Now that ‘Karthikeya’ is a winner, I want to meet Nag sir with a script. It’s a cop story and is tailor made for him. I wanted to narrate it the other day when I met Supriya garu but he was out of station,” he says.