A white paper, few water colors and a brush in hand..

When I walked with these in any art competition when I was in school… every one around me knew that I would walk away with the first prize yet again, and they have to fight for the next prizes…

It has been a long journey from painting to photography …to finally paint the silver screen with colors..

‘hope” was my debut film. It was selected in the Indian panorama section and was part of the IFFI 2006 in Goa. A telugu film making an entry after a gap of 10 years. It was a great feeling to walk on the red carpet with my hero of the film Dr.D. Ramanaidu Garu. It was a dream come true..

Looking back I feel I was lucky, I always got, what ever I wanted in life.. I guess every one will get what they want, but it all depends on how badly they want it..

When I quit Gemini TV, where I was working as a free lance event manager….. I just had this new mission that I will make a movie..

with no prior hands on experience in direction, I was groping in the dark with the subject in hand.

The norm in this industry is that if you want to direct a movie you have to make a script yourself and approach the producers.

I was lucky to move with friends like Ramu(ram gopal varma) , Jayanth, Sarath, to understand the process of film making.

But script writing who will teach me?

I got my first lesson in script writing from my good old friend Ram Mohan. That is when I realized that I knew nothing about writing; I also realized the need to learn.

Like always I went to all the book stores in Hyderabad, and bought every book that talked about film making, script writing.

In 6 months time I had my first script in hand. I planned this film in English, with a small budget of Rs. 30 lakhs.

An NRI friend came forward to produce this film, I had met him in the USA when went along with a film production company. ( That is a an another story … some other time)

I was all exited; I was going to make my first film. But things dint work out, owing to some personal problems the producer backed out. And I shelved the script. My confidence grew as a writer, I wrote another script. Ram Mohan was still there helping me around.

I showed the script to few people they liked it, looking back I feel it was a good script for that kind of money. Narrated it to a couple of big heroes, they liked the subject, but it was not in the commercial format they are used to. It had just one fight, 3 songs. They were scared to do it.

It is very hard to break the system.. Every one talk of change, every one condemns the present commercial cinema. But hardly any one practices.

I went back to my writing table, now what. I knew the subject was great. It was the need of the hour. I started putting on paper; this is what I learnt from my brother, planning.

I started writing another script with the same subject.

This time I had every thing on paper. I wanted to get a critical acclaim, take the film to IFFI Gao.

I wanted to tell the subject through some one very important in the society , who also knows little bit of acting. I asked my friends to come up with names. Names like Mr. Narayan moorthy(infosis) Mr.Ramoji rao also came up, but no one mentioned Dr. D. Rama Naidu garu name. I was praying that some one came up with that name, because the only name I scribbled on my paper was that name.

Every one who heard that name were shocked, they said are you mad.

But I had made up my mind.

The third script on the same subject was ready. I wanted an out side producer to do this film. The only person who came to my mind was Mr. Harinath Policherla. I met him In USA when I went to work for his film. I called him and told him I have a small project, will you do it. He said let me see it. In 15 days he was in India on some work, so I went and met him in his home town Tirupathi.

People close to me liked the script. Everything looked good.

The meeting with Harinath lasted for an hour, I gave him the script, the budget and the cast my trump card, Dr. D Ramanaidu. I also promised him that I will take him to IFFI Goa to walk on the red carpet. Mr. Harinath asked me did you speak to Naidu Garu, I said no. he said will he do it. I said I will get him.

He said, ok Satish get me Rama Naidu Garu and I am doing the film.

Naidu Garu…I had never met this legend before, how do I approach him, I knew his son Mr.Suresh Babu well enough but I dint wanted to go through him. I called up my childhood friend Sarath , at that time he was doing a movie with Naidu Garu. Sarath introduced me to the legend. I suppose He was under the impression that I was asking him to produce a film for me. I clarified to him that I want him to act in my film.

He heard the script and said yes. And “hope” was born. My first film..

A white paper ,few water colors and a brush in hand.. That was then now, I am going around with scripts in hand dreams in the heads, passion in the heart to paint the silver screen..