Exclusive! Producer Sudhakar Cherukuri: Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu will make you go nostalgic about your family time in villages

Producer Sudhakar Cherukuri, the brain behind Sri Lakshmi Venkateswara Cinemas, was all nostalgic about his childhood days amid a joint family setup when he first heard the script of Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu from director Tirumala Kishore. What if the protagonist in the story is the only boy in a huge family and the major decisions in his life are made by the women in the house? That's the film in a nutshell for you. The producer felt the relevance of the story wasn't limited to his personal life alone and could resonate with many youngsters who lead a fragmented existence away from their roots.

Having begun his career with Padi Padi Leche Manasu, the producer has a series of interesting films in the pipeline, of which Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu would be hitting theatres first (on March 4). Apart from Rana Daggubati's Viraata Parvam, he has Ravi Teja's Ramarao on Duty set for a release in April and is also backing Nani's action entertainer Dasara. In a conversation with OTTplay.com, Sudhakar tells us of his family roots, his obsession with cinema, why he left a comfortable life in the US to get into film production and the many factors that go into his script selection.

Early years, influences from surroundings, family

I essentially hail from an agricultural family, my father was a farmer and I spent my formative years in my village. Since first grade, I've lived a major part of my life in hostels. Ours was a huge joint family and I grew up noticing how my grandfather dealt with village politics. I could attribute my leadership skills to the surroundings in which I grew up. My parents had many siblings and the house was always full of life. 

I got to observe several interesting traits of the people around me. One of my grandfathers (My mother's uncle) was an atheist and even headed the 'Bharata Hetuvaada Sangham' in the Rajahmundry region. He really liked children and we grew up listening to his conversations and many learnings from his experiences. A lot of our family members helped with the education of children from nearby villages and most of them are now either doctors, engineers or in influential positions in the US, UK today.

When the madness called cinema entered his life

My interest in films began mostly in my teenage years, around my tenth grade, intermediate where I and my friends escaped from hostels to watch second shows. When we were studying in Davanagere (near Bellary on the Andhra Pradesh-Karnataka border), we couldn't watch Telugu films often. Most of the shows of big stars like Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh and Balakrishna began at 5-6 am in morning. We used to travel over 200 km on our bikes just to catch a Telugu movie. That was our obsession with cinema.

The decision to settle in the US and return later

It wasn't a plan as such to settle abroad but each of our friends began heading to the US one after the other. Naveen (Yerneni of Mythri Movie Makers) was the first in our batch to move to the US, he influenced a few like me to come there as well and I convinced my other friends later. It was more of a ripple effect. More than my family, I was very attached to my friends who studied with me in Davanagere. I am a person who's very attached to people, families and most of the people close to me stayed in India. 

From 1998 to 2006, I lived in the US, running an IT company and I thought enough was enough and returned home. My daughter was a six-month-old child when we decided to return. A lot of my friends who entered the film industry kept interacting with me and told me the many pros, cons associated with filmmaking. Given my fascination for cinema, I wasn't discouraged by the negatives and saw it as an opportunity to understand practical problems within the industry. Their experiences were a learning curve for sure.

The Padi Padi Leche Manasu experience

Padi Padi Leche Manasu was a film totally shot in the outdoors, mostly in and around Kolkata and Nepal. That I didn't see life beyond US, Rajamundry and Hyderabad, I went the extra mile to get acquainted with the process and I used to spend the entire day on the sets. Despite the film not being a success, it taught us a lot. We spent over Rs 33 crore to make it (over the budget). We simply didn't want to make it for money alone and did everything to ensure a good product.

Cracking the success formula in cinema

You can achieve success in the industry when you trust good scripts. It's important not to compromise in terms of budget when you know that you have a good subject on hand and look beyond cost-cutting. Once you ensure that you provide all the resources to translate a good script into a good film, our efforts will pay off in the long run. 

On investing in young directors for his productions

Regardless of an experienced director or a debutant, if you have an impressive story on hand, it's not very difficult to put together a capable team in place to execute it. There are only five to ten prominent directors in the industry and it's not practical to just hang on and wait for your turn to produce their films. There's a lot of young talent waiting endlessly for the right opportunity to make it big and it's important to give them a platform too. Whenever these young directors make it big, there's an additional satisfaction of being the person to have identified their mettle early.

The decision to make Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu

We wanted to take up something light-hearted after Padi Padi Leche Manasu. Sharwanand is more like a brother to me and we share a rapport that goes beyond labels like actor and producer. Tirumala Kishore is always known to complete films quickly and we were confident with the script. Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu is a family drama with loads of entertainment and enough emotions. A lot of us today live secluded lives in cities, away from our roots, families. The film will rekindle all the memories you made with your loved ones, the life that many once lived with aunts, uncles, grandparents.

The reason behind family crowds distancing themselves from family dramas lately

A certain section of the audience has stopped going to theatres owing to COVID-19 and are preferring to watch films on OTT. Yet, I am confident that family crowds will turn up in big numbers to watch Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu. The film is made for them. How long will audiences be stuck in their homes and not venture out? The characterisation of Radhika Sarathkumar, Urvashi and Khushbu will stand out. The title may be named after women but I wouldn't call it a female-oriented film. The film revolves around the families of Sharwanand and Rashmika. It's just that women are a prominent part of their lives.