Producer Sudheer Pudota has big plans

After a rather bad start to his filmi career with Sumanth-starrer ‘Emo Gurram Egaravachu’, businessman-turned- producer John Sudheer Pudota is back in action with three releases—‘Showtime’, ‘Naruda Donaruda’ and ‘Over Action’ (with Siva Nageswara Rao). Sudheer points out that he was made to associate with ‘Emo Gurram Egaravachu’ despite him having no intentions of foraying into industry.

“The film was carrying a good buzz but it tanked. The important heads associated with it played dirty tricks, causing its downfall. I’ve lost quite a big amount on it but nonetheless it was a big learning curve,” Sudheer says, refusing to go deep into the topic.

Immediately after ‘Emo Gurram Egaravachu,’ Sudheer decided to make a movie in Thailand which he often visits for business purposes and which he considers as his second home considering what the country has given to him.

“I was at same time wondering why shouldn’t I make a movie in India? I’ve took a break of three years and came up with the idea of RAMA which stands for Royal Asian Movie Awards. It’s named after the king of Thailand Rama IX,” he reveals, adding that his aim is to conduct an award ceremony which will be superior to Oscars.

“45 Asian countries will participate in the event and the launch will take place in Thailand in December while the (awards) ceremony is scheduled in Singapore sometime next year. I’ve met Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Tony Jaa in this regard and they’ve all lent their support. The governments and kings of these countries too said they will back it. 3,000 Asian movie artistes will be under one roof for the event.”

But first, Sudheer is keen to prove a point with his Telugu releases. His first release would be ‘Naruda Donaruda’, the trailer of which broke the internet upon release a fortnight ago. It stars his good friend Sumanth in the lead.

“When he told about his plans of remaking ‘Vicky Donor’, I was pretty excited. Since it was a super hit in Hindi, I was sure that if handled well, the Telugu version would do wonders and I told Sumanth that I’ll completely fund it but he insisted that I share half the burden. I was okay with it,” Sudheer recalls about the project, which he produced along with Sumanth’s sister Supriya.

Sudheer also goes a long way with ‘Showtime’ director SS Kanchi, elder brother to SS Rajamouli.

“He was supposed to direct ‘Emo Gurram Egaravachu’ but I don’t know what transpired in the last minute for Chandra Siddhartha to take over it. I’m aware of Kanchi’s passion and he always discussed his thoughts whenever I dropped by the sets of ‘Emo Gurram Egaravachu’ occasionally. I believed him to make a different film and he did that exactly with ‘Showtime’. I told him that as long as I make movies, I will support him,” he affirms.

While his Telugu-Tamil bilingual with Bharath is almost over, Sudheer also has plans to make movies with big shots of Tamil industry.

“Somebody told me that I can make a film with Ajith and I’m going to talk to him in this regard,” he points out, adding that he is ready to produce films with Mahesh Babu, NTR and Allu Arjun too.