RGV Blog

On the eve of the 35th anniversary of SHOLAY I ask myself this question.

Why is it that Sholay doesn’t age? It just seems to stand still at the “pause” button of a Cinematic era for the last 35 years without aging one bit and I won’t be surprised if it stays that way for still another 35 years if not another 70 years.

People might talk about ‘Mother India’ with respect but in their heart of hearts every cinegoer of the country knows that it’s ‘Sholay’ which is the actual Mother of Indian Cinema in every which way.

In Vijaywada when I was doing my engineering there were so many times when I used to stand in the line waiting to buy a ticket for the new Sridevi movie and I used to keep staring in awe at her on the hoardings in the theater compound. Her beauty and her sex appeal were [...]

Nothing is more truer than that line from the “Idea” campaign which says “An idea can change your life”. My whole life and also my career as a Director is a living testimony of that truth both in positive and negative ways. It could range from a film like “Satya” coming from an Idea like [...]

Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIbnwBwmSNk The song tune is inspired from one of my all time favourite pieces of music of the Italian composer Ennio Morricone. He did this theme for the film ‘Exorcist II: The Heretic’. Incidentally Morricone is also the composer for a great number of cult western themes including ‘The Good, the Bad and [...]

From the time I started researching the story of Paritala Ravi, to now editing the film, I am discovering so many things within me and also learning so many facets about my own perceptions of various things and this is happening mainly because of my ongoing continuous understanding of the characters of Rakta Charitra as [...]

YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l_VRRBnEVE Written and Directed by Milind Gadagkar (also the writer of Phoonk) This Theatrical will be released with RANN. Join yourselves on the social sites to stay updated about Phoonk 2. Phoonk 2 on FB: Profile Fans Page Group Phoonk 2 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/phoonk2 | Follow it @phoonk2 Download the Teaser Video (Click [...]

After getting hit by the incredibly enormous impact of AVATAR and then once you get over the dazzling Special EFX and the unimaginable imagination of James Cameron if you just concentrate solely on only the 3D aspect of it you will see that it surely and clearly opens up a new dimension for any kind of cinema not necessarily only for huge mega budget special EFX films like Avatar.

When I was hanging out around Annapurna Studios trying to get a break, I used to attend the music composing sessions of “Collector Gari Abbayi”. In the course of those sessions whenever its music director Chakravarti and the director B.Gopal used to go for lunch I used to chat up with the music director’s assistant and once in a while he used to sing tunes which he himself composed. I was very impressed with many of his tunes and one day I described to him a scene from “SHIVA” the way I was intending to shoot it and I asked him about what kind of music he thinks should be there in that scene and he replied that there should not be any music in that scene. I was mighty impressed with the answer especially as it came from a musician and I committed to him that if ever I get a break I will sign him as my music director.

1. How can one successfully flop a film? Ans: Very simple. Just remake Sholay. 2. Can you tell us how you and Mani Ratnam collaborated on Thiruda Thiruda and Gaayam? Ans: He didn’t like a single thing I suggested and I didn’t like a single thing he suggested. So we just went ahead and did [...]

. I used to hangout near a theatre called Vijaylaxmi in a place called Kamayyathopu in Vijayawada. Me and two of my friends Sridhar and Naresh were the 3 most useless bums in our college. Everyday without exception we used to watch movies and many times repeatedly the same movie. The reason for us to [...]