B. NAGI REDDY “A film can either rake in huge profits or turn you into a pauper overnight” Movie mogul NAGI REDDI tells JYOTHI VENKATESH in this rare nostalgic interview taken 42 years ago

I met B. Nagi Reddi a few days before the untimely demise of his eldest son B.L.N. Prasad at Kodaikanal following a heart attack. At 60, Nagi Reddy was fit, energetic and brimming with ideas for new projects.

In spite of his tightly packed busy schedule, part of which included finalizing his next project after SWAYAMVAR, B. NAGI REDDI squeezed in some time for me at his Taj suite, his favourite abode in Bombay.

What made you decide to take up an out- dated subject like SWAYAMVAR which was first made in Telugu twenty years ago? Do you think the audience's tastes have remained static?

To tell you the truth, I had been toying with the idea of launching the Hindi version of my own GUNDAMMA KATHA for the past fifteen years. We had first decided to make the film with Prithviraj Kapoor as the father, in the role now being played by Dr Lagoo, with Raj Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor as the two sons.

Raj was keen on the idea since it was the first time someone had thought of casting the father and his two sons together in real life roles in a film. However, things didn't work out later, since I was too preoccupied with my numerous Tamil and Telugu assignments. I was directing films made under my own banner those days. Six years ago, we revived our plans to make SWAYAMVAR in Hindi. The idea then was to cast Raj Kapoor as the father, with Dabboo and Rishi as the sons. If our plans materialized we probably would have launched the film with Babita and Neetu Singh as leading ladies in the roles, ultimately played by Moushmi and Vidya. Instead the idea was dropped once again and meanwhile I made films like GHAR GHAR KI KAHANI, my first film in Hindi, JULIE, followed by YEHI HAI ZINDAGI and SWARAG NARAK.

Why did your casting plans change in the final version?

The character of Tripathi was so brilliantly portrayed by Sanjeev Kumar in my SWARAG NARAK that I decided to launch SWAYAMVAR with Sanjeev Kumar playing one of the two sons. Having already cast Sanjeev Kumar as one of the sons, I could not think of casting a teenage hero as the other.

So I decided upon Shashi Kapoor as the second son and signed Vidya Sinha and Moushumi as the romantic leads opposite Sanjeev and Shashi because young girls like Padmini Kolhapure and Poonam Dhillon or even Jaya Prada would not have suited Sanjeev and Shashi at all.

After I narrated the story of SWAYAMVAR to Sanjeev, he brought Vidya along one day to meet me. It needed just one look at her to convince me that Vidya fitted the role of Muniyarani in the film like a glove. She perfectly resembled the character I had conceived in my mind. I do not underestimate the audience's tastes. I admit they may differ seasonally but one thing for sure- the best subject is useless unless your casting is perfect. Miscasting spells doom.

Why do you prefer to play it safe by sticking to remakes of established Telugu hits?

Films are a costly experiment. You just cannot risk taking on untried subjects. It is better to be safe than sorry. One can never predict whether what we propose to serve to the audiences will be palatable to them.

I have been cooking for the past thirty years and so would like to be as cautious while considering potential subjects.

When I invest lakhs of rupees in a film, I want to avoid risks. We are not making art films like Satyajit Ray. For one thing, the government never comes forward to finance our films and for another, I do not have enough money to spare.

I have huge financial commitments. Apart from the sprawling Vijaya Vauhini Studios, I have the Vijaya Gardens, a recording theatre, a publishing house which brings our children’s magazines, like Chandamama, film monthlies in Tamil and Telugu as well as a hospital complex.

I can’t afford to make films only to please myself. Look at what happened to the Gemini banner. It had to close down after Vasan's son decided to make a trilingual film in three different languages and all the three flopped. A film can either rake in huge profits or turn you into a pauper overnight.

Why do you think that the audience's tastes have deteriorated during the past decade?

The producers themselves are responsible for this. In the old days, the audiences were more discriminating and wanted refined, family oriented or emotional subjects. The youngsters of today are hopelessly addicted to sex, violence, revenge and vendetta subjects. But I’d rather attempt to inculcate good tastes in them rather than give them what they want. I do not want to corrupt any mind, young or old.

Why are you not making Telugu or Tamil films these days?

For the simple reason that while the investment and cost of production of Tamil and Telugu films are similar to those of Hindi films, the returns of a Hindi film far exceed any of the others.