Dr D RAMA NAIDU

FOUR DECADES, A DOCTORATE, AN MP AND NOW IN THE GUINNESS BOOKS OF RECORDS, TOO
This simple man from a remote village of Karamchedu in Prakasam district, headquarters of Ongole in Andhra Pradesh, was a peasant. His amazing ambition and a hidden power whose name is too big to reveal for any human took charge of him. The hidden power told him secretly that he was not made for the life of a peasant growing rice in acres and acres of fields. He was not even made for the rice mills which he started out of his sense of adventure, not even for transportation business which was then considered a very lucrative business. He still cannot believe how he was gradually lured into films, a peasant dreaming of trying his ambition at the business of entertainment! He knew nothing about the business. He only knew that it was a business of a blend of glamour, games, gloss and entertainment. And where, if you are lucky, you could make it as a multi-millionaire and if you fail you could be dumped into the nearest dustbin where so many others who had tried and failed were thrown alive and forgotten unless some extra-ordinary miracle helped him like Jesus Christ was raised from the dead on the third day of his crucifixion.

For a short while this six feet and towering personality with a booming voice was tempted to try his luck as an actor. He tried all kinds of ways to make it as a filmmaker after he left Hyderabad and came to Madras in 1962-63. He was very good at making friends and so he did with some of the leading filmmakers who to his great surprise found were only too willing to help him. He learned the basics of production, direction, distribution and every minute aspect of filmmaking. He remembers how he walked outside the palatial bungalows of all the leading stars and filmmakers. He wanted to be something like them, one day. He wanted to have his own dream bungalow with his name plate, D Rama Naidu, embossed in gold. Today, nearly 40 years later, D Rama Naidu is one of the biggest names in Andhra Pradesh, a name to respect, a name which means dignity and honour, a name which means a messiah for all his technicians down to the spotboys, for the industry as a whole, for the poor and the downtrodden, for the old and the aged who have been thrown away by their children, for any number of handicapped men and women. Today, D Rama Naidu is a name all over Andhra, not just outside a bungalow. The man himself is now too modest but the love and affection of the people pours him to name everything, every institution he starts with his name, whether he likes it or not.

Some examples will prove how popular the man is, popular because of his outstanding and overwhelming contribution to cinema, his first love, to society and to his "motherland" - Rama Naidu Studios, Rama Naidu Films, Rama Naidu Recording Theatre, Rama Naidu Colour Laboratory, Rama Naidu Preview and Dubbing Theatre, Rama Naidu Audio and Rama Naidu Charitable Trust. His name also adorns the main hall of the Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce and several other kalyan mandapams all over the state and several other smaller organisations in every village almost.

The man’s massive contribution to various fields in life have inspired scholars of the Shri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. They have honoured him with a doctorate. He is Dr. Rama Naidu now. He recently entered the political arena, fought the elections on a Telugu Desam Party ticket and won the Bappattala parliamentary constituency with a majority no MP has ever won in Andhra. And now to top it all he has gained official entry into the Guinness Books Of World Records for producing the largest number of films as an individual producer (103 films in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali and Hindi). His topmost rivals or competitors can cause him no harm or stop him who has given the industry some 20 new directors, the same number of music directors, a number of technicians and any number of newcomers who later have become major stars. Naidu has also taken keen interest in a novel project, Janmabhoomi, introduced by the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandra Babu Naidu. The project has inspired Naidu to make a commitment on his own to make the village where he was born Karamchedu flourish under this project, flourish in various ways, ways which will help his people. Dr Naidu’s greatest ambition is to give opportunities to as many newcomers as possible in different fields of filmmaking and his other great ambition is to make films in all the recognised Indian languages of the country.

So what do you say about a man like this, a man who feels embarrassed when praised for all his almost superhuman activities? There are people who have branded him a "superman", "a phenomenon" and even "a legend in his lifetime". His basic motto is "do unto others as you would have been done by and make no enemies and let vengeance grow inside you". It is difficult to praise a man like this, a man so great and yet so small, according to him.

His invitation to visit his studio in Hyderabad cannot go unheeded. I have never missed any. There have been many who have tried but have failed. So I am here, his guest, watching all that’s going on during the making of Aaghaaz (The Beginning). He is the only producer who stays on the sets supervising every minute detail. The only time he keeps away is during his Rahu Kalam.

He normally makes all his Hindi films based on his original hits and superhits. Aaghaaz (The Beginning) is based on his own Shivaiah. It is directed by Yogesh Ishwar who is also being given a break by him. Yogesh was the associate director of Vidhu Vinod Chopra during the making of Parinda and 1942 A Love Story. Naidu never knew what Yogesh’s credentials were. But the very fact that his name was suggested by Anil Kapoor, a very close friend, was enough. Yogesh was in and it was just the beginning. Naidu showed Yogesh some big hits in Telugu and asked Yogesh to make his choice. Yogesh quickly decided to go for Shivaiah, the flavour and fragrance of the soil made him take a bold decision and Naidu promised to offer him all help, even create Punjab in various parts of Hyderabad. Soon Yogesh had a promising cast working with him but the stars who really mattered to the subject, the story were Sunil Shetty, Sushmita Sen, Namrata Shirodkar, Suman Ranganathan, a bright new girl called Shraddha Nigam, Sharat Saxena and Sharad Kapoor together with a number of leading character actors from Mumbai.

Filmmakers normally don’t like revealing their stories and that too before the film is complete. But Naidu doesn’t care. He says all of Andhra knows the story of Shivaiah and very soon the whole of India will know what Shivaiah is all about, so what’s wrong in giving away a little of the story. So, according to Dr Naidu, Aaghaaz (The Beginning) "is a story of a tough woman cop and what happens to her, her family life, the area around her and her tussle with her higher ups. Sunil is in love with Sushmita but for some strange reasons he cannot marry her. He cannot marry Sushmita who is a tough cop, a lady who can lay down her life to do her duty. Her stories of bravery and courage lead her from one promotion to another till she becomes an assistant commissioner of police. Circumstances play their own games and Sunil is forced by circumstances to marry Suman Ranganathan. A time comes when the entire village takes up arms against Sushmita and among the leaders are the man she once loved, Sunil, Suman Ranganathan, Sharad Kapoor (fresh from the success of his performance in Josh) (Sudesh and Namrata play brother and sister.) According to both Naidu and Yogesh the real twist, the real emotional drama starts in the film after the first half. "And I must say that the twist in my film is not like the twists and turns in the so many films which claim to have twists and turns in their films and end up with nothing. It is a twist that makes you hold your head and stop your heart beat for a few moments and say to yourself Arey yeh kya ho gaya? Aise to hona nahi tha. Lekin yeh hua kaise? The answer to this question is the novelty of the film," according to Dr Naidu.

"Otherwise we have already completed a major part of the film. We recently shot two songs on Sunil and Namrata in Malaysia. Later we have plans to fly to Australia or to Switzerland to shoot the other songs with Sunil and Sushmita. The film will then go into its post-production stage and I want to finish the film as soon as possible because I have five more subjects which I can start as soon as possible because I have all the five subjects ready to shoot anytime," says Dr Naidu who is making three films right now - one in Telugu, one in Kannada and Aaghaaz (The Beginning). I am always a man in a hurry. My record proves it and I have not just gone for the number of films but also for quality, cinema like I said is a faith, a religion for me. I don’t make films which cater to the front-benchers only. I know they too need entertainment but my films are for all classes of people. That is what I have proved during the last 40 years”, DRN says.

Dr Naidu is happy with the progress of Aaghaaz (The Beginning) and the one person he is really happy with only because of her hard work is Sushmita Sen. "I had my head full of doubts when I had signed her to play the central character in the story. I too believed that models and beauty queens couldn’t act. But here is this girl Sushmita Sen, an absolutely marvellous actress. If I was a director, I would not take a second shot of any of her scenes. She is so very natural, so very good, so much better than all the nakhrewali heroines of Mumbai who need the stick or the tongue to get even reasonably good work. Sushmita is a perfect actress. She has understood her role thoroughly. She is a source of inspiration for the entire unit. She plays a tough cop but she also has some very rich, emotional and romantic scenes in the film. She has some good songs too. So all in all she is my complete heroine” D.R.N says. Says Sushmita: "I took several days to decide to do this film. I didn’t want to play the usual, typical Hindi film female cop who flings her limbs in the air after every three scenes and has the power to beat up 12 toughies at the same time. I didn’t want to play that unbelievable fantasy role. I am no Vijaya Shanti. I salute her for the things she does but I would love to do things my way. The very fact that I have just done four films in the last four years proves how choosy I am when it comes to selecting my roles. This role, I am sure, will be an example for actresses to prove themselves, to do roles that make sense and have quality as the hallmark.

Soon Naidu will leave most of the work to Yogesh but with Naidu you can never say. He can walk in anytime, change anything he wants, cut anything he doesn’t want because he is the ‘boss’ and this ‘boss’ is one ‘boss’ who can not be questioned.

Naidu has his hands full of work, especially after he has become an MP. He doesn’t just want to "play" the MP but he wants to work and try to make it as an ideal MP.

And there is one thing about Naidu which very few know and that is his love for his two sons, Suresh Babu and actor Venkatesh. "I have been blessed by God in all kinds of ways but I feel the greatest blessing that I have received from God are my two sons who are my lieutenants. I can’t work without them and they can’t work without me," Naidu says.
If all goes well and that inside power which is still a royal mystery is on his side, Naidu has plans to build another empire in another place in Hyderabad. What a man who makes what a difference to so many men, women and children. These men, like Dr Rama Naidu are examples for other men to follow. Follow them to reach somewhere.

Envy them, hate their success, all the good things about them and their success and you will reach nowhere. It is these men like Naidu who are born once in a way to teach lessons which will last, last, last and who knows change the world. WHAT A MAN!

Ali Peter John