The hotel boy who became a producer

Hailing from a tiny agricultural family in Narsapuram of West Godavari district, Chinababu’s first job in Hyderabad was in the housekeeping section at a star hotel. That was in 1993. Today though, Chinababu is the producer of the upcoming film Tripura — starring actors Swathi and Naveen Chandra in the lead roles.

“Whatever work I ever did, I did them all sincerely. When I arrived in Hyderabad, I was looking out for any small jobs and I joined Golconda Hotel as a housekeeping boy,” reveals Chinababu.

While he was working there, city real estate baron Srimitra Chowdhary happened to visit the hotel once. “I was allotted his room. Little did I know, life would be changing soon. He liked my sincerity and asked me to come work for him.” Chinababu didn’t need to think twice and quit immediately. “I then worked as his driver — going wherever he went and looked after him and his work,” he says.

The young man worked for almost five years with Chowdhary. “I’m now like a part of his family and never will I forget what he did for me,” he says. He later joined as a production assistant for TV serial, Santosham.

“Nagababu acted in that serial and I got close to him because again, he was impressed with my work ethic.” During that TV stint, Chinababu says that he picked up valuable insight into the whole entertainment industry. “Later, a channel decided to make a festival show and they want to shoot at all the big pandals in the city. I finished that project by hiring 50 people with 10 cameras. That was my first success,” he says.

Soon after, he got a call from the CEO of Zee Telugu to join as an employee. “Even I was shocked when I got a call from their office. They told me that they had got orders from the CEO. Later when I enquired I got to know that Nagababu Sir had told the CEO about my work and behaviour. That’s how I got a job there,” adds Chinababu.

“I learnt a lot about the satellite business of Telugu films. I also got to know what kind of films the audiences like and many other things,” he says.

He eventually started to buy and sell satellite rights on his own. “I got some money and I first ventured in dubbing films. I took the rights of three Tamil films and released them in Telugu. All are successful,” he says.

After he was settled in his business, he got the idea of making a Telugu film. He approached director Raja Kiran and liked the story of Tripura. “That’s how my first film as producer happened. I am jointly producing this film with Rajasekhar,” he says.

The film’s budget was Rs 6 crore and they have already made profits before release.

“I believed in the content and I knew it was sure to succeed. People liked it and we did business for all areas. In Nizam I sold for a good price to Abhishek Pictures, they are releasing it in more than 250 screens, which shows how confident they are about the film,” says Chinababu.

Today he is well settled and wants to produce good films. “I am grateful to Srimitra Chowdhary, Nagababu and many other who helped me come to this stage,” he says, adding, “Chowdary Garu is happy to see me in this position.”