A journalist knows how to treat another journalist. In a first ever biggest outdoor shooting coverage in Andhra Pradesh, BA Raju has pooled up 35 journalists and photographers from different media like print (weeklies & dailies), TV and internet and took them on a pleasure trip to Narsapuram, where the shooting of Superhit Friends banner's Chantigadu (chikkadu dorakadu) is taking place. BA Raju made sure that the journalists derive maximum pleasure in terms of comforts by taking them in an a/c compartment and offering the best of luxuries. And when it comes to promoting the product, nobody knows better than BA Raju - who promoted lots of films on his Superhit magazine.

The rainy season has just come and it brought in a lot of hope to the dry Andhra and the dry box-office too. At the shooting locale, it was raining during the nights and was as sunny as summer during the day. A song was being shot on the banks of Godavari river in Narsapuram on the hero and his friends in the dance direction of Venu-Pal. Shankar Mahadevan sang this song.

Situation of the song:
The hero and his friends fail the 10th class examination. When they fear that their parents would scold them after seeing the paper early in the morning after they wake up by nature's alarm (kodi kootha at 5 am), they kill that hen and prepare biryani. This song comes up when the hen's owner comes and asks them about the hen. The song goes like this
"Kokkarako idi nippukodiro
deeni nippasaara pettaro"

Here are the details of the press meet that was arranged during the shooting of this song on 20th June:

Choreographers: Venu-Pal
Speaking on this occasion, the choreographer duo Venu - Pal said that they choreographed a song in Superhit friends banner's earlier film 'Premalo Pavani Kalyan', for which they had completed shooting in just two days. An impressed producer has given them another opportunity through this song. They said that this song has visuals showing the traditions and culture of Konaseema.

Director: Jaya
Director Jaya is in all praises for the hero Baladitya for the kind of spontaneity and ease he has in acting. She said that they have been canning this song for the past two days and the budget for this village-based song is 10 lakhs. Jaya felt that the future of the debutant hero and heroine is dependent on her. Hence she is taking a special care to promote them. She also said that she is personally handpicking the jewelry and dresses for the heroine Suhasini. Speaking about heroine, Jaya said that Suhasini is not only a beautiful girl but also a good actress. She said that Suhasini is going to be latest sensation in Telugu cinema, which is suffering from the absence of genuine Telugu-speaking actresses. She said that Rambabu, Jagan, Pawan and Phani who are acting as hero's friends are doing pretty good job. She mentioned that the people from Rama Naidu Labs said that the film does not need any editing by looking at the rushes. Such is the performance by the cast and crew. She said that the art director is constructing a house-boat now, which would play an important role for a songs and some scenes in this film. She said that 70% people in this film are new faces and technicians. She is expecting them to have a busy time once this film 'Chantigadu' releases.

Hero: Baladitya
Hero Baladitya said that his first shot as a child artist on 13th June 1991 was the shot in which he offered prayer to Lord Anjaneya's statue in Tirupati. In this film too, his first shot is about hero offering prayer to Lord Hanuman's statue.

Heroine: Suhasini
The Telugu girl from Nellore, Suhasini said that she has been interested in watching films since her childhood and has been aspiring to become a heroine. She said that she respects the people in film industry a lot after seeing the kind of hardwork that goes into the making of films. She said that she is playing the role of 'Seetamahalakshmi' (Seeta in short) in this film. She thanked director Jaya for treating her more like a friend than an actress.

Producer: BA Raju
Producer BA Raju said that the shooting of this film was started in Hyderabad on 9th of this month and later the unit moved to this place on 13th June. He said that his earlier film Premalo Pavani Kalyan was also shot in the same place. The people who watched that film gave a feedback that they found lot of Telugu nativity in the film because of locations. Hence he chose the spot, as this film is a tender youth village based love story. 50% of the film would be shot in this Konaseema and remaining 50% would be shot in Hyderabad. BA Raju mentioned that this film is a clean, good and musical entertainer. BA Raju opined that new faces could only do justice for the story prepared by Jaya. He also mentioned he has plans to make films with established big heroes in the future. He said that the success of the films with new faces like Jayam and Gangotri is the inspiration to plunge into production with new faces by spending 2 crores of budget. He said that he is introducing two lyricists - Ram and Shyam - through this film. Vandemataram has recorded all the tunes. Shankar Mahadevan, SP Charan, Suneeta and Usha sang the songs. BA Raju categorically mentioned that he chose perfect singers for the songs by avoiding Vandemataram Srinivas singing any of these songs. Audio of this film is expected to be out in the month of July. This film is slated for the release either in the last week of September or the first week of October.

Report by: G Narasaiah
Photos by: Giri