Exclusive interview with hero Raja.
Advanced birthday wishes!
Thank you.
So is Mayabazar your birthday gift
Definitely. Mayabazar will be a milestone in my career. It is not only a different kind of film for me but also gave me lot of scope. It is a dream come true role. I am fortunate enough to get this role so early in my career. Both Krishnas (Radhakrishna, Mohankrishna) did a fantastic job for this film. Radha gave fantastic tunes and Mohan did a wonderful job in giving them a visual shape. After Anand I have not tasted big success yet. I am very confident that this will be a huge hit and so you can say it is a birthday gift.
How come you are so confident about this project? Mohankrishna is new to commercial cinema. Isn't he?
I dont think Mohan is new to commercial cinema. Do you think Grahanam was an art movie. I didnt think so. I dont see a difference in commercial and art movies. They all are to entertain and bottom line is if they ran well at the box office. Or do you want to call the films that did not have commercial success as art films?
Mohan is perfect with his work. You should see the way he went about with the screenplay, the way he explained the scenes to us to extract the performance etc. He strives for perfection and his struggle for that tells you what kind of a director he is. The script is
superb.
And as far as my character goes, I have done a very good role after a long time. This gave me lot of satisfaction. That should explain my confidence in the film.
While doing solo hero, you were also doing other characters in films. What was the strategy here?
I am always interested in doing good characters. I make decisions on the films only when I like the characters. Various things change towards the end. Some times the characters took different shapes than what were explained to me by the directors. For example, in Style I was supposed to have a song. That song was there in the album too but it was edited out in the movie. Kokila was a good movie but it could not reach the audience because of no publicity at all.
Though I wanted to do mass films for a while, I did not get good offers.
I accepted the role in Bangaram because I wanted to reach out to the masses. There is no need to say how much craze Pawan has got and acting in his film would take me to all cornors. So I would get benefited with the reach into masses. And that worked out too. I got noticed in the masses. In any case, it is better off doing variety of roles rather than sitting idle at home (laughs).
Also, there was buzz that you did not want to do Anand kind of films any more. And you were asking for films like Taxi 9211, LRMB etc
It is absolutely absurd. I never told any one that way. It is true that I heard so many stories in the recent days. What I did not like in them is the cheap comedy track, vulgarity etc. If I said no to any flims that would be because of the above.
But I never told any one that I would films like LRMB and would not do films of some sort etc. If I like my character, I will definitely do the film.
Last birthday you said you wanted to earn 100 crores and spend it for the society. Where are you now with that plan?
I dont feel the necessity to explain all that. But what I can tell you is that I will stand by my word once I am commited. I dont like to explain with math on what is going on. I am always doing something towards the society. I spend 35% of my earnings on this kind of work. I always wanted to do charity work on large scale. And I am definitely planning on it. There is an absolute necessary for health awareness programs in the rural areas.
Other than movies, what do you do in leisure?
I got a new liking for Bowling now. It is my new sport. I am planning to participate in tournaments too. I am practising on regular basis. To tell you the fact, I want to represent India in this sport.
About Love
Not yet! I will tell you when it happens.
What are your future ventures?
I am relaxing for now. Jitendar's film is all set for shoot. There are 2 or 3 more which are on the verge of finalization. Will let you know the details soon.
What are the plans for this birthday?
I am not in the city for this birthday. Fans are making big time arrangements in Warangal. Entire day is filled with social activities. About 3000 will donate blood. Also Annadanam and vastradanam will be performed. I will spend the entire day in Warangal.
What is your message to the viewers?
Watch my movie Mayabazar. I assure you that you will not be disappointed.
