Rao Ramesh has become a big hit with the college students  after the release of Kottha Bangaru Lokam. They all want someone like him to be the lecturer who would bring life into the class room with easy going manners and a cool attitude. Now being 30 plus has suddenly become cool and happening. But where was the tall, charming Rao Ramesh all these years? All along he was known as the son of the illustruous actor Rao Gopal Rao. But did it help? Certainly yes, people in the industry did recognize him, they would offer a chair, switch on the fan and be very courteous but it ended there. Ramesh had struggled shuttling between Chennai to Hyderabad, from the small tube to the telugu film industry in search of roles but nothing substantial happened.

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2008/10/15/stories/2008101550670100.htm

The Hari in Kalavari Kodalu would spend all the money he’d made from television serials on flight tickets and would often feel frustrated reciting dialogues that ran into pages. The late Omkar did give him moral support but after sometime Ramesh was on his own. He read out the prelude in Okadunnadu and attended a muhurat of a film which never took off. But finally, he impressed director Krish at a coffee shop when he reeled out poems written by C Narayanreddy and Gamyam materialised. Ramesh says,” TV gave me fatigue, I was yearning to do something more. For years I learnt photography but never set out on a career, neither did my parents counsel me. Now I am sure about what I want from life. I want to act and act in challenging roles.”

Apparently, Ramesh’s mother is hari katha artiste. She holds a record of giving 16,000 performances and sometimes her programme would run from 9 in the night to 6 in the morning. She was the one who goaded Ramesh to take up acting. After Gamyam’s success at the box office Ramesh was offered quite a few films. One of them was Kottha Bangaru Lokam. Ramesh adds, “I was asked to meet the director in Vizag and he was sitting at Annavaram temple writing dialogues for the movie. I was still unsure and felt content for atleast getting the opportunity to have god’s darshan. Later in Hyderabad the director acted out the scene for me  and told me to do it without imitating him. Once I was done with it he hugged me and all of them flooded me with compliments.”

What is his next film? Ramesh is doing Rajamouli’s socio-fantasy movie with Ram Charan Tej as the hero. “I’m doing a sage’s role, in Avakai Biryani he is donning the role of a 55 year old man and a negative character in Fitting Master and cameo in Dongala Bandi and Adugu. There is Gamyam’s tamil version too.

Ask about his father, Rao Ramesh reminisces, “We loved him but we maintained a distance out of respect.  We hardly exchanged any conversation, his forefathers being zamindaars, the feudal atmosphere continued at home. My father had innumerable friends and once read out addresses of 2000 people while getting invitation cards ready. He hated when people didn’t respond to phone calls or missed calls. We would maintain a diary and write that the list of people who called in his absence. Once I had noted that Satyanarayana from Parry Company called. Father was not amused. He asked me if Satyanarayana was my friend, when I replied in the negative he insisted that I write his name as Satyanarayana garu. So that was dad in a nut shell.”….

TDP leader Erram Naidu says the proposed bauxite mining in the agency area of Vishakapatanam would pollute rivers, destroy coffee plantations, put the environment in disarray and disturb the tribal life. Speaking to sunitablogs, Erram Naidu says,

“congress dvandha vidhaanalu avalambisthondhi. Ikkada girijanula potta kotti, Orissa lo maatram Rahul Gandhi adhi raajyaanganiki viruddham, vytairekam ani chepthunnaru. AP lo adhe karyakramam jaruguthunnappudu athanu, YSR prekshaka paatra poshistunnaru. Ithara raastrallalo Cong vyatireka prabhutvaalu unnayi kabbati girijanulani recchagodthunnaru.”

He alleged that the proposal was meant to help close associates of the CM and it tantamounted to looting of Government property to benefit individual firms. The refineries was put up by Jindal group and Anrak of which AICC treasurer Pratap Reddy was a partner.

Naidu alleged that the mining was proposed without the consent of the gram panchayats.

“ Vaala angeekaram lekunda, teermanam lekunda, restricted and forest clearance leni areas lo (Central Empowered Committee, appointed by the Supreme Court had not visited to accord forest clearance), AP Mining Corporation broker ga undi, aluminium factories petti, AP Mining Corporation (The raw material - bauxite ore - would be sourced from APMDC, which would mine the bauxite independently)dvaara aa bauxite mineral ni vaala manushulaki icche prayatnam jaruguthondi.”

Instead of displacing the tribals, basic health, education, water and sanitation facilities could have been given priority rather than bauxite mining.

Raghu Kunche is from a small village near Rajamundry. When his class mate Jyothi in the tenth standard told him that he has a great voice and should try singing, he took the advice seriously. At the freshers party in intermediate he sang Ravi Verma ki andhani oke oka andhanivo……and he was an instant hit. He started going to competitions and won several gold medals for many years for which his mom lovingly got shelves made, arranged it and displayed it with pride. He saw an advt in the newspaper which called for freshers wanting to try their luck in the movie industry. It was from Dasari’s home production. Raghu immediately embarked on the journey to hyderabd. He didn’t know anyone there neither did he have a some kind of connection in the TFI.

When you have an urge to accomplish something, even gods will come down to help you. That is exactly what happened with Raghu. He casually got talking to one co-passenger in the train Shri Radhakrishna who was a god in disguise. After listening to his song, the gentleman took him home, sent him in his car to Dasari’s office and the acquaintance became a permanent relationship. Till today, Radhakrishna is an integral part of Raghu’s life. He even wrote to Raghu’s father to encourage Raghu to settle down in Hyderabad and look out for opportunities. That done, the young singer began the uphill task of reaching his goal. He got to anchor Yours Lovingly, a programme in Gemini TV and got his first chance to sing for Jagapati Babu in Bacchi, thanks to Puri Jagan. Chiranjeevi heard his song and gave him an opportunity to sing for the Hungama song in Mrigaraju. Raghu started his career in TFI as a dubbing artiste, first project was for Sanjay Mitra in Vaishali. He had completed 10 years in anchoring, as a dubbing artiste, as a music composer and a singer, also won four Nandis.

For Raghu, music is life and his hero is the late Kishore Kumar. In an chat with Sunitablogs, Raghu says even if no one is around, if I hear Kishoreda’s voice, I feel gratified says he. A graduate in BA Carnatic Vocal, Raghu thinks there is lot more to achieve and labels himself an average artiste. Raghu is currently charged with his second alblum getting ready for release.  Last year he’d done Raghu with love, a remix album. But this time it is not remix, there are eight compositions and the track has been titled Love in New York. He has Ms Manhattan giving him company in the video, three songs have been shot in New York. This will be out in October last week. All the best Raghu.

Nikesha Patel is dressed in a bright saree, she’s chewing gum and her assistant is giving her some final touches at a set in Annapurna Studios. This is not the first time she’s facing the camera. At 20, she has bagged many modeling assignments, participated in the Ms Wales and Ms World competition and now she is turning up the heat in her first film Puli with Pavan Kalyan. At first glance, Nikesha is a subtle beauty, elegant in her looks and extremely stylish when she walks. In an exclusive chat, the NRI actress reveals that she’s loving south Indian films and has resolved to learn telugu soon.

Born and brought up in the UK, Nikesha has her mother coming from Gujarat and her dad from Kenya in Nairobi.  She’s grown up on a diet of hindi films and must have watched a zillion before deciding to plunge into a mainstream telugu film as an actress. A fan of Madhuri Dixit, she says it doesn’t matter whether she’s doing a gujarati, hindi or a telugu film, big role or a small role…all it matters is if she’s doing a good one or not. She says, “I’m happy am going through the tough patches early. Telugu is alien to me but I’m determined to pick up the language soon.”

So how did she bag this role? Nikesha met director SJ Surya through a friend in Mumbai and he’d been impressed with her portfolios and acting skills. She’s more than happy with the entire set up, the strong story, the cast and crew. She quips, “I’m lucky to be working with the best cinematographer Binodh Pradhan and yes, a great super star Pavan Kalyan. Though I haven’t heard of him I ‘ve done a lot of research lately and found him to be very popular in the UK.”

Nikesha loves just about everything to do with movies, the clothes, jewellery and she adds, “the dancing, the hair blowing,”.  Her parents were very supportive when she decided to work in Puli but Nikesha says she gets tired easily doing nothing on the sets waiting for the next shot.  About the film she adds that she plays a police officer who later on becomes a housewife. I do a lot of comedy too. The hero is a shy character and it’s my job to open him up.  She says, “In real life too I’ve found the hero to be really reserved, he keeps to himself most of the time, reading a book when he finds time. I haven’t seen much of his work yet and I’m waiting to see him act.”

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2008/10/07/stories/2008100750330100.htm

When she’s not shooting, Nikesha loves to go back home  in London or catch up with her sleep in her hotel room. She’s not a party person and mostly keeps to herself watching a lot of reality shows on the small tube. In Hyderabad she hasn’t done much sight seeing but admits shopping for a lot of pearls. “But I didn’t miss tasting the hyderabadi biryani. The first thing I did after coming here was to get a taste of it and being an absolute foodie I loved it. I eat and I work out doubly hard.”…

Murali Mohan who has been an active participant in all TANA programmes terms the recent fracas in the association as an unfortunate event. Talking to Sunitablogs, Muralimohan says he has a message for the TANA members, “Please solve it like a family problem. You all are educated, considered the cream of the State, daya chesi settle it amicably and restore the pride to the telugu community. If you want any help from our side, we are willing to come there to discuss it or if you want to come, you are welcome. Idhi telugu vaala total pride, it’s not about one party or community. “

Local Channel to be inaugurated by CBN on 8th

(Thank You Ayyavaru and Madhavi, and Chandrakanth. We got your cheque for Chadavalaniundi Programme)

There is a rate /remuneration If you laugh, if you dance, sway your hips in movies. People of  all castes/creed see your films, why do I have to give up the luxury and come to poIitics asks Roja? “I want people to vote for the right leader, want the right governance for them and Andhra people have seen what Babu had done for the State, so I’m asking them to vote for him. It’s ridiculous to blame him if rains have betrayed us, “ speaks Roja to Sunitablogs.

Roja has a daughter and son and says once she goes home she switches herself completely off and concentrates on the family and when she is at work she doesn’t even call home once to enquire about her kids. I have a supportive family she adds. She is least perturbed about the negative comments that have been coming from the PRP followers. She asks what right do people who handle guns, beat up press people, bring ignominy to the institution of marriage, cheat women … have to talk about women. “Vaala vyaktitvam prajalaku telusu ante what does he mean. People know about me, I’m an open book. Edho nalo tappunattu he spoke, first take care of yourself. 

 Bharateeya sampradayaani mantakalupuythunnav, who  are you guys to tell us to shut up? In politics everyone speaks, we have a right to point out. YSR  is so senior, we pointed out his mistakes he realized and he said within one month he will take them out. That’s how one needs to work. Aameki emi telusu aame sevachesindhi enti? That was their question. I didn’t do any seva neither did I beg for votes. I’m in the party, there is no hypocrisy. I’m talking about issues and fighting for it.”

She adds, they don’t have the answer, neither do they have the guts to answer and to counter attack they have chosen a filmi path like offering flowers and cleaning roads. Dourjanyalu chesevaalu, ee roju there is so much of change in them…good what more does one want, because of me the roads are lot more cleaner, flower shops are getting good business on account of me, PRP people have become so soft. Happy kadha!”

Roja is amused at the lack of response that is being publicized as a great human quality. She says, “Because they can’t answer my questions they respond by saying ma leader ni emaina ante kodtham thidtham. They don’t have stuff, they are just scared that if they speak a lot of skeletons will come tumbling down from their cupboards. Second, you get a good impression if you stay quite.

People will say look he’s too good, even if she’s saying something he’s keeping quite. According to me maunam angikaaram. How many of these supporters know about Chiranjeevi? Are they just doing it to get his attention or is it plain abhimanam? What is that seva they are talking about? Ekkadaki ellina choosamu, chestamu, comittee esamu adhyayanam chestam antunnaru. What was he doing all these months?

Seva anedhi manchi manasu tho cheyyali tappa, adhi chese, 10 people ki cheppi daani valla sontha labham pondhadam…tappu. You are still learning, elections ki time vosthondi…exams roju exam rayali gaani ayipoyinaka raasthanu ante etla, study fast…enni  zillas unnayi, what the names of these districts are, problems in these districts….!”

Ravula

In response to the raids by farmers in Khammam yesterday, Raghuveera Reddy said that it was conducted by the TDP and CPI people and the ones who indulged in the act were not farmers. In a chat with sunitablogs, Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy, Ex Rajya Sabha member retorts,

“Raghuveera Reddy has no understanding of fertilizers. If you don’t use this fertilizers and store them for the next season, it will get spoilt. He’s saying that TDP and CPI have organized these raids, not farmers. It’s all out of frustration. He’s saying ‘Nenu adhikaram ni baaga anubhavinchanu. Inka chaalu vocche ennikalalo odipoyina parvaledhu.’ That means he’s already conceded defeat? Pilli kallu moosukuni paaluthaginattu maatladuthunnademi, state mottham rasta roko, dharnas and mantrula gheraulu avuthunte, rythulu roadlumeediki vocchesaaru and this man doesn’t know what he is talking. Rythulu avedhana vyaketm chestunte veelu rajakeeya rangulu jalluthunnaru. Raghuveera Reddy is a disaster as a agriculture minister.vyavasaya sakha brastu pattindhi. 5000 farmers have died so far, ivvani sarkari hatyalu.”

Sitting in the last row at the Taj Residency, with her two daughters and watching the launch of Satyameva Jayate is Geeta. She is India’s first woman sound engineer. A consummate professional, Geeta as a sound recordist has worked for over 600 films. So what is Geeta’s job?  Basically convincing the listener that what they are hearing is real, she laughs and says, “well that’s not as simple as it sounds.”

Geeta was born and brought up in Chandrapur, Maharashtra but she did her schooling and higher secondary in Bangalore. Her father who was a civil engineer goaded her to take up the three year in Sound Engineering at the Sri Jai Charmarajendra Polytechnique because he wasn’t sure about his daughter getting a good rank in engineering. Geeta had seven other girls doing the diploma but none of them have taken the sound field as a career and opted for broadcasting companies. Was it easy getting a break after her academics? Geeta says the course helped her a lot in getting a first hand knowledge of sound recording and processing and thereafter went on a technical tour in the metros to meet the seniors. One can choose to work in films, in a TV tower, as a spot recorder, BPOs, shows, live events etc she adds.

Her first stint was as an apprentice at Saket Electronics, a recording studio owned by Shankar Nag. She had learnt all the aspects of post production work of kannada films and then joined Lahari Recording Company as a sound recordist, they had apparently opened a recording studio at Bangalore. But what are the pre-requisites to be a sound engineer? Geeta replies emphatically, “one should love music,  should be creative, ears should be tuned to the sound i.e one should have a passion for sound.”

She admits that she has to put in as many as 12 hours a day and sometimes she doesn’t get home until 2 am. How long does the post production work take? She adds, “It differs from film to film. The sound effects, background score, final mix and lab processing takes on an average 2 months, sometimes some finish it in one month. Aamir Khan and Maniratnam take around 3 months to complete. The dubbing of Dil Se had taken one month and the background score of Satya took 25 days. I’ve done the background mixing of Dasavataram, the post production went on for 2 months. It is not a clerical job, one should have passion to get it all right.

Geeta  is currently with the Real Images, she’s been here for 15 years and Real Images  is the first studio to start digital recording in India. She is happy that  of late lot of avenues and mass communication institutes opening up for girls who want to explore sound but laments that there is no single coaching institute in Andhra Pradesh for technicians an dthat producers are importing technicians from Chennai and Mumbai,  it despite being the largest producer of films and that too big budget films .

The lady is married to musician and music director S. Chinna whom she met a recording studio when he worked for Raj Koti. She is a Kannadiga, he is from Andhra.  They understand each other well and help each other in balancing their lives. She says, “It was tough when I had my first daughter but later everything fell in place. He plays music and I record and mix it for him.” Geeta was amongst the all women team headed by Revati when they did Mitr in the US. Now she is working with Jeevita and says that women make terrific technicians. Your wave length is the same, co-ordination is easy and one can move along freely.

The best compliment Geeta says was from music director Chakravarty  who in 1990 at Prasad’s recording studio remarked that  it was the best thing in his career to spot a woman working in a recording studio. A defining moment indeed for Geeta who has made her mark in the male dominated industry….

Though she is completely from a non-filmi background, her father was actively involved in the theatre in his childhood and he saw to it that she got trained in Bharatnatyam when she was eight years old. Remya participated in innumerable stage shows, in temples, religious ceremonies, during Navaratri and many informal get togethers in Kochi. She owes everything to dance as the live performances helped in moulding the actress in her. “The expressions and emotions came easily because of the training in abhinaya,”says the gregarious lady and adds that since she is used to dancing before crowds, she didn’t feel strange when she went on the sets for the first time. True, the audience enthuses you in reacting immediately whereas for films, one has to wait for months together to get the feedback.

 As an artist, she is not squeamish about choosing roles.“For me all roles are good roles. Otherwise, I can’t act. There is nothing called a bad role.” Says Remya. She had worked in six Malayalam films when RP Patnaik saw her picture in a website and called her straight to the set and started shooting her without an audition. Andamaina Manasulo was a debut film for her and Rajiv, the hero as well but Remya’s role had negative shades and was slightly complicated. She giggles, “I know, I fool around with my boyfriend and ditch him, vanish suddenly and get married to a boy of my parent’s choice. Then I surface years later only to give him some gyan.”

Remya Naambessan’s first film Anachantham opposite Jayaram happened when she was in the 9^th standard. She talks about it animatedly, “In Kerala we are crazy about elephants and the hero is passionate about them. I play the role of a responsible dance teacher and for that they dolled me up in heavy cotton sarees and gave me a matured look”. At the moment she has signed a tamil film Raman Thediya Seethai with Cheran and there is a second done with Chandramukhi director P Vasu’s son Satti.

How does the actress take care of her looks? “I have a propensity to put on weight but my regular dance classes help me stay fit. Otherwise I don’t do much to look good. I keep myself happy by indulging in hobbies like cooking reading. I love making Chinese and onion papad fry. I use plenty of onion on all the dishes. When I’m not cooking I watch plenty of movies.” Remya says telugu films are a hit in Kochi and Allu Arjun is a big hero down south, the folks have a fans association for him too. She is looking forward to working in more telugu films but now getting over the fact that she missed the chance of acting with Mohanlal and Mamooty

One day I came across an article about the film institute of Pune and I asked them to send me a prospectus, after which I realized that its a post graduation course and there were only 6 six seats available in each department. I was doing my second year intermediate and cinematography is one aspect which fascinated me at that particular time. My mind wasn’t on engineering as the normal thing expected out of us was to take it up after 10+2 . 

Your stint in hyderabad?

My parents are agriculturists and they were broad minded enough to give me so much freedom. They trusted me though they’ve had conventional hopes of their sons being doctors and engineers. My father felt very happy when i took him along to collect the National award.

My initial experiences in Hyderabad was very interesting.

In Hyderabad I got into Marine electronics and after five months into it, i came to know about JNTU collage of fine arts which offered a bachelors in photography. I was excited and applied for the entrance though I didn’t know how to handle a camera.

I later chatted with the students and that too had limited seats of 20. I got through the exam somehow and that changed my course of life. I knew that i was destined to be a cinematographer.

Who helped u out with ur career? is it easy getting offers for aspiring Cinematographers?

Once I was done at the Film Institute, i was not sure where i had to go but eventually decided on hyderabad as I wanted to work for telugu films. Before i joined the institute i made lot of friends who were from the industry, they all used to attend the Hyderabad film club screenings.

I also worked with Ajay vincent and Vincent garu for a short while and the going wasn’t all that difficult. I felt that the industry is always hunting for talent.

What is the scene like in Mumbai?

Mumbai is always full of energy. It a city where any one can get work and at that time the entertainment sector was going through a good phase. In hyd, one can find a lot of work too apart from feature films i.e advertising,promos,short films, documentaries et al. So there is scope for experimenting and Film institute graduates do have an edge on others in terms of opportunities.

Ur award winning film, something abt that?

Well i think that’s history. Any way i’ll mention abt it brief. When i was at film institute, UNESCO asked for scripts for 5 short films from different continents. I was in the  second year and I happened to write a script and sent it across, it was selected for the Asia pacific region and they funded $15000.

The film was screened in many international film festivals and was telecast in 30 TV channels in Europe and USA.It won the award for `Best film for young children, 2004′ from the Association of International Broadcasting.I got a “Special Jury award” at the Indian National film awards 2004. The film was called `EK AAKASH’

Your memorable moments in ur college and in film industry?

I think i cherished every moment in the institute. We all would sit in the main theater and watch rushes of the films we shot. Then we would have a hearty laugh at our shortcomings under the Wisdom tree. Also Holi was the most memorable fest at the institute. I remember very vividly, we were shooting for Ek Aakash perched on roof tops waiting for the wind to blow in our direction for hours to shoot the kites fly.

The last days of shooting Madhumasam and Pourudu and watching the films with the audience at the theatre on the first day gave me a high. ANR saw the film and appreciated my work in both the films. It made me feel good.

Most rewarding work in ur career

A short film i shot for my colleague from the institute recently called `REWIND’. The entire film was in the reverse mode. It was very exciting and challenging to visualize the shots in reverse.The film was from `shots international’ and it will on soon at Apple itunes.

Your work experience with madhumasam n pourudu directors, any particular people u want 2 work with?

I had a great time shooting Madhumasam and pourudu. Both the films have a completely different visual style. Madhumasam is a love story with subtle emotions where as Pourudu is an emotional action film.Chandra sidhard the director of Madhumasam is a friend of mine since my pre institutes days and we always wanted to work together. He is a very jovial person and never comes under pressure. He keeps his cool all the time. He also keeps his crew in good spirits. He has a great ability in handling actors and drawing the best performances from them. He also gave me immense freedom to experiment. We are in great tune with each other and we rarely discuss about how to go about a scene. We discuss more about dialogues and screenplay more than shot taking and lighting.

Pourudu was a different experience and I had to make sure that Sumant looked different and dynamic since it was an action oriented film..Raj Aditya is the director and we never met before pourudu. He has great confidence and is a cool person basically.He always made sure that the other crew members are convinced about every thing before we commence shooting.He is very open to ideas and discusses openly without apprehensions. He also believes that a film is a collaborative medium.He is very quick in adapting to the situation .

Among the telugu directors Rajmouli,shekar kammula, Bhaskar, sukumar ,Ram gopal varma,Bapugaru would be fun to work with.

How does the vision of each director differ and how do u live upto it?

Definitely every director has a different approach towards film-making. Cinematographers have to understand the his/ her ideology of filmmaking that would come through in the discussions about the scripts and genre of the films he likes etc. Once you understand that i think you can place the film you are working together.

I think if the script falls into what he believes in, it will be easy to work because ,lot of it comes from the script.I think its always better to approach a visual style from the script side rather than directors side,since all new age directors want to do some thing very different form his earlier film.It will make your work challenging even if you are shooting multiple times for the same director.

Your future projects

I have not taken up any new project yet. At the moment there is one at the discussion stage. Right now I’m trying to get into advertising…Planning to shoot a short film next month….looking for the finance!!

You philosophy in life n ur goal

By the end of my career when i look back , I would want to put my hand on my heart and be able to say
‘ i have contributed to the language of cinema.’

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2061804/