Just over a decade after he ventured into film production, Suryadevara Naga Vamsi quickly emerged as a prominent name in the show business, with Sitara Entertainments backing a successful list of films, from Jersey (2019) to this year’s Sir. His line-up too is crowded, featuring films with stars like Mahesh Babu (Guntur Kaaram), Vijay Deverakonda and Nandamuri Balakrishna, to name some.
The producer has also been frequently backing smaller films and continuing the practice, he is now presenting MAD, a youthful entertainer set to release on October 6. In a conversation with Film Companion, Vamsi shared things about the process of accepting a script, plans involved in it, success and failure.
Excerpts from the interview:
There are many sources to learn about filmmaking skills like cinematography and editing. How does one learn about producing a film though?
To be in production, all you need is patience and courage. Nobody teaches you about production. You can achieve anything with those two qualities. You just need to be patient during the whole process. Everyday, every small thing tests our patience. We just have to hold that frustration within us.
You have a biggish film like Sir positioned between Butta Bomma and now MAD? Is there any calculation behind doing medium, small and big budget films in a row?
There are no such calculations according to the budget. We just hear a lot of stories and make them happen. We don’t think about the pattern of releasing them. Coming to MAD, director Kalyan Shankar had a film called Anaganaga Oka Raju with Naveen Polishetty. As it was getting delayed due to some reasons, Kalyan Shankar approached me with the script of a youthful college drama that needs young talent. So I heard the script of MAD, loved it and planned to take it on floors. Sometimes everything falls into place. We don’t plan the line-up with any calculations.