Hyderabad: Dasari Narayana Rao, Krishna Vamsi, E.V.V. Satyanarayana, Ram Gopal Varma, Sekhar Kammula, V.V. Vinayak, Kodi Ramakrishna, S.V. Krishna Reddy, Bapu, Srikanth Addala, Sukumar… it is a long list.
These are directors from Godavari districts who have made their mark in Tollywood. Now, another young director Kumar Nagendra, from Chagallu village in West Godavari district, has joined this illustrious list.
Hailing from an agricultural family, Kumar Nagendra completed his schooling in his village and reached Hyderabad to pursue B.Tech. “One day I watched Titanic with my friends. The film moved me so much that I was attracted towards the world of films,” says Kumar.
“One of my cousins was working as a cameraman with director Krishna Vamsi. So I approached him and I joined as his assistant,” says Kumar.
He had worked in two films when director Krishna Vamsi spotted Kumar’s talent and asked him to join him as an assistant director. “I worked on almost seven films as his assistant. I have observed Krishna Vamsi sir very keenly,” he says.
After gaining experience, Kumar wanted to start on his own. “I met producer Madhu Murali with my script. He liked it and wanted to produce a film with Tarun and Genelia as the lead. But because of some financial problems, the film didn’t take off,” he says.
Soon, he got a call from Manchu Lakshmi and was asked for a good story. “When they asked for a story I narrated Gundello Godari. She liked it and immediately gave a green signal,” says Kumar. That’s how Kumar’s first film happened after a considerably long wait.
Now, Kumar is all set to release his second film Joru. “This is completely different from my first film. My first film was an offbeat one, but Joru is a complete entertainer,” he says.
Sundeep Kishan plays the lead in the film and there is a good comedy track with Brahmanandam, Saptagiri and many other comedians in the film. There are also three female leads Rashi Khanna, Priya Banerjee and Sushma, opposite Sundeep Kishan.
“All the three have important roles but Rashi Khanna is playing the main role. The story revolves around a character Annapoorna. All the three ladies have the same name and the resultant confusion provides a lot of entertainment," says Kumar about the film.
