Vijayawada gives birth to another T’wood hero

A facebook post changed his life

The city served as roots to Tollywood trinkets including NTR, ANR, Sobhan Babu, Kantam, Murali Mohan, Rajendra Prasad, Savitri, Annapurna, Rambha and Srikanth. Attempting to step into their shoes, city lad Dileep Kumar is about to make his debut in the movie ‘Saheba Subrahmanyam’

Vijayawada has now paved the way for yet another hero in Tollywood. A fresh and young graduate, Dileep Kumar, is set to make his debut through the movie ‘Saheba Subrahmanyam’, a remake of Malayalam’s blockbuster film ‘Thattatin Marayathu’. The film is set for release in the last week of November or the first week of December.

The city had produced top heroes for Tollywood including NTR, ANR in the first generation, Sobhan Babu and Murali Mohan in the second generation, Rajendra Prasad and Srikanth in the third generation and Krishna’s son-in-law Sudheer in the fourth generation. It is not just these heroes who hailed from the city. The city fondly remembers Kantam, the first generation heroine followed by Savitri, Annapurna, Rambha, Ravali and Laya, who made their presence felt in the Telugu film industry as heroines and character artists on the silver screen. Writer and director Jandhyala, too was from this city, which is known for its cultural base.

Having completed the shooting and waiting for his debut film’s release, the young hero Dileep Kumar thanked his producer Dr Kolla Nageswara Rao, who lives in London but has his roots in Guntur district.

The story behind the inception of the film is dramatic. The young hero, who was pursuing B Sc Visual Communication from Andhra Loyola College, came in contact with Dr Nageswara Rao on Facebook.

“I posted my profile picture on the social networking website and got several likes for it. Surprisingly, one of them who liked the picture was Dr Nageswara Rao, who later became my well-wisher. He came forward to support my Master’s degree in visual communication. So I joined the Christ University in Bengaluru after discontinuing the same course from Garden City College due to financial constraints,” Dileep reveals.

Both Dileep and Dr Nageswara Rao spent hours chatting and together decided to take a plunge to make the movie. Interestingly, ‘Saheba Subrahmanyam’ is the debut movie for both of them. The movie also has other debutants including the director, Sasi Kiran, daughter of leading comedian MS Narayana.

Having decided to make a movie, both Dileep and Dr Rao watched blockbuster love stories in Kannada, Bengali and Malayalam and finally zeroed in to remake the Malayalam film ‘Thattatin Marayathu’. Dileep did the homework of selecting the characters for the movie with the help and support of many in the industry. He thanked the industry’s leading comedian MS Narayana for readily agreeing to allow his daughter Sasi to direct the movie.

“MS sir was a great source of help and was a guiding force all through. He stood like a rock behind us through the making of the film,” Dileep asserts.

Sai Prakash is the cinematographer and Shaan Rahaman has scored the music for the movie.