Debut film. Two National Awards. One Filmfare Award. Tremendous success, but he smiles and says he is just lucky enough to be a part of it and instead gives the credit to the entire team. He is young, handsome and perhaps the most stylish producers of the TFI in current time. Yes, it is none other than last year's blockbuster hit film Pellichoopulu producer Yash Rangineni. We recently caught up with him in Hyderabad when he was in India for Film Fare Awards and spoke about his reactions after winning the National Award and Filmfare Award in the span of just 2 months. He spoke very freely and shared his journey so far in the Telugu Film Industry (TFI).
Although Yash is an NRI, lives in London permanently, his passion for art pulls him to the Telugu film industry even after living abroad for more than 25years. He is a Health Commissioner by profession and works for National Health Service (NHS) in London. He also owns a property business on top of his regular job as a Clinical Commissioner. He recollects that his grandfather who was a great patron of art and culture and that he encouraged drama and the artistes in his village Rakonda, just a few miles from Hyderabad. He discovers his passion for art and culture at that young age as a child who enjoyed the plays and dramas enacted in their hamlet.
Yash Rangineni is the alumnus of Osmania University, Hyderabad where he graduated in B.com and later on moved to London for MBA. He specialises in Marketing. To add to his talents, he is a very good cricket player. He also writes scripts and stories and acted in school and collage plays.
On asking upon, he says he would like to act if anybody finds him apt for any role, but feels inappropriate to act in any of his own productions.
Talking about the National and Filmfare Awards, he expresses with a blush, “I was surprised, humbled, honoured and privileged, and never expected. The entire team, must be credited with the success and particularly Tharun and Vijay. I’m just lucky enough to be a part of such a beautiful film.”
He admits, Vijay Deverakonda the lead in Pellichoopulu and also his nephew had worked really hard to make his mark in the movies as he has faced all the struggle in the industry being an outsider. ”Vijay started his career with theatre and had performed in a lots of plays in Hyderabad. I must tell you that he is a wonderful boy, works extremely hard and had no support what so ever in the film circle. As a family, we were all very concerned initially but seeing his interest and passion for acting and writing scripts we didn’t have any choice other than encourage him. Glad, he pulled it off successfully and with a bang,” says Yash proudly and with immense satisfaction about his nephew. He also very humbly makes a point that, “It’s Vijay who gave me a break with this movie and not me who gave him a break, as some think and Vijay knows my passion for Cinema and of course we both benefited a lot with the success of Pellichoopulu.”
On taking up the remakes from other languages, he says his motto is to encourage new talent and no matter what language the story is originated from. He confirms with a big smile on his face that he loves Malayalam movies. As of now, his focus and priority is to make good Telugu movies.
On the topic of his next venture, he told he is making a movie with Vijay as the lead and introducing another new talent called Bharat Kamma as the Director of the movie. “Bharat is known in the film circular for a while now and he has done a few popular short films already. He is rated very high by the critics and I have seen his work first hand. He will be another big thing in the TFI next year and I am very confident about this. We are also introducing Justin Prabhakaran to the Telugu industry as the Music director from Chennai. Justin has already gave successful music for nearly 8 movies in Tamil and he will be bringing a completely new taste to our Telugu audience with this movie. He has already composed rough tracks for this movie and they sound very melodious. The other technicians include Sarang brothers who will be executing Cinematography and Editing. They are also extremely talented youngsters. Heroine and the title of the film yet to be finalised and we are going for shoot from September,” very proudly reveals the details by Yash.
He says that making a movie makes him content, “Movies make money not just for the film makers and the people of 24 crafts but also a lot of other people who benefits with the success of a movie. Such as, a samosa vendor in the theatre, the cab or auto drivers who drive the audience to the theatres.” He feels extremely happy that, movies have the potential to create employment opportunities to lot of people and also contribute to the local economy massively.
On the topic of continuous production from his BigBen Cinemas banner, he says that he doesn't believe in the equation: more number of movies, bigger the success. Quality is the key proponent that they work on.
Upon asking if he wishes to make message oriented movies, he says he only wants to involve in strong story based films and Pellichoopulu was one such film. It had a message how a woman have to be independent and strong. “The story has to flow naturally and in an organic way,” he reiterates. He thinks, it’s not a good idea to pick a message and write a story around it.
When asked if he would like to give a message to the young actors or any buddying producers or whosoever wanting to enter the film industry, he replies with modesty that he didn’t think he is qualified enough to answer. He charmingly says, he is humbled and wanted to answer based on his little experience.
“Enter with strong conviction. While taking up a project do it with complete confidence and if there are any doubts do not go for it. Identify the area that you will find yourself strong and compelling and work towards it.”
He finally wanted to thank the audience for loving the movie Pellichoopulu and taking it to a next level. He thanks the entire team with special gratitude to Vijay for bringing up this offer to him and Tharun Bhaskar for his beautiful story and direction. He extends his thanks to his friend and partner Raj Kandukuri for co-producing and being there in person in all stages of film making. Finally, he thinks without Madhura Sreedhar and D.Suresh Babu’s help this wouldn't have been possible and he profoundly thank both of them too for their support.
We wish Yash Rangineni all the best in all his future projects with great success.
