August 19, 2012 Y. Sunitha Chowdhary
Director Ravi Chavali is all set to show Balakrishna as a television reporter in Srimannarayana. Why a channel reporter? "In Samanyudu the hero was a print media reporter, so I didn't want the hero to play in the same arena. Also the story was written with Balakrishna on mind and also felt that a director can fall into the big league only when he works with a star.
The film shows how powerful a journalist can be, how he can solve a common man's problem, the amount of guts he has to face the mighty. He uses media to highlight and solve issues of the farmer and given a choice he even reaches for the gun. I did take some liberties to speak my mind through the hero. The focus is on agriculture, the farmer and we intend to say more than the fact that India will be green only when the villages are green. There is another point too that I cannot reveal," says the director.
Ravi reveals that Balakrishna looks very young and enough care was taken to make him look casual; he sports a shirt and jeans but the dialogues are powerful and there will be his usual trademark fights and songs in Switzerland and Malaysia. Emphasis and story on suicide of farmers, villages and songs in Switzerland? Ravi is amused but quick in response, "We shot one song in the village, we can't shoot all right? Plus we need to deliver what people want and the hero's fans expect from us.
I could have showed the hero as an advocate, cop but a journalist is more relatable, he is a bridge between the government and the society. All the problems in the film are real. There is one dialogue between the hero and the CBI..Nuvvu Central Bureau of Investigation, government ki tala vanchi panichestav, nenu Channel Bureau of Investigation (CBI), government tala dinchela panichesta."
Balakrishna apparently told the director that he never played a journalist and was enthused by the story, okayed it in the first sitting. Vijay Kumar plays NBK's father, Parvati Melton too is a scribe and Isha Chawla his love interest. In the second half of the film, the visuals dominate dialogues.
