Interview with Raja

National award winning director Neelakanta is coming up with Mr Medhavi. This film sports Raja and Genelia in the lead roles. Raja is so much confident of the film’s success that he bought the overseas and DVD rights of the film. Here is our exclusive chitchat with Raja -

Tell us about your character in Mr. Medhavi?
I am doing a challenging role of a project manager for a group of companies. I come from a poor family. My character’s intelligence in this film is like a double edged sword which is both boon and bane to me. It is a very manipulative character. The film is all about how Mr Medhavi (Mr. Intelligent) manages the good and bad things resulted due to his intelligence.

What about Genelia character?
She did the role of an NRI who comes from Canada. She is an entrepreneur. She has strong personality, independent attitude and she is a go-getter. Mr. Medhavi will be a hat-trick film for Genelia after Bommarillu and Dhee.

How is it like working with Neelakanta?
Neelakanta is one the finest screenplay writers in the country. He is a fabulous director to work with. I watched the rushes during the dubbing time and I was surprised at the performance Neelakanta extracted from me. If I had to repeat this performance, I might not be able to do it. We have very few directors of such type.

We do find female dominating characters in Neelakanta’s films. Is Mr. Medhavi an exception?
Yes. There is no female dominance. And the movie is titled on my character. I cried watching the climax of Mr. Medhavi. I had similar feeling when I watched Anand and Aa Naluguru. Mr. Medhavi has emotionally moving climax.

Tell us about the music?
Music of the film is fabulous and rerecording is great. My favorite song in this film is ‘neeti mabbullona’. The song ‘kala kaduka’ comes during the introduction of Genelia.

What is reason for taking overseas and DVD rights of Mr. Medhavi?
I will be distributing Mr. Medhavi overseas on Sri Raj Film Distributors banner. I also bought DVD rights. I am very confident that this film has everything right going for it. I had seen the film three times and every time I had fallen in love with the film. That is the reason why I bought the overseas rights.

Who is going to coordinate your overseas release?
RK Films that releases blockbusters like Bommarillu and Happy Days will be helping me release the film. The interested exhibitors can also call me up on my personal number 99490 88343.

Is it part of your remuneration?
No. I paid cash and bought it.

You worked with Genelia and Sneha. How different they are?
Sneha does mature characters and she has good hold on the family crowds. Genelia does youthful roles and she has following in youth. I must say that both these actresses does perfect justice to the roles given to them.

When is Mr. Medhavi is going to release?
The tentative date of release is 24 January.