Shirdi Sai Press Meet

‘Shirdi Sai’ starring Akkineni Nagarjuna in title role, directed by K Raghavendra Rao and produced by A Maheshwara Reddy was released on September 6th and running in theatres successfully. On the eve of the success of the film producer A Maheshwara Reddy organised a press meet and shared his views.

In the press meet producer Maheshwara Reddy said, “We saw many miracles in our life after we announced the film ‘Shirdi Sai’. Our family has been blessed by Baba already, yet we experience new miracles which cannot be explained by words. Our purpose would be solved even if 1000 people visit Shirdi after watching our film and many have really visited Shirdi to have Baba’s darshan after watching the film. What else could I ask for than this? So far 40 to 50 lakh people have watched the film and it wouldn’t be a surprise if even 1 crore people happen to watch. I consider all that as Baba’s miracle. With the blessings of Baba and my parents I made this film to bring awareness among the people about Baba’s nature. Our family members are the devotees of Baba from 1980 onwards. Till date, the filmmakers have shown only the miracles of Baba. However, my aim was to exhibit Baba’s nature to the people. About 3500 people are working for me and all of them are Baba’s devotees. The success of ‘Shirdi Sai’ has given me the satisfaction as much as I got in 2006 when my family members made a gold throne to Baba.”

About director Raghavendra Rao he said, “I consider myself very lucky to do my first film with him. Raghavendra Rao garu worked really hard for this movie. He read about 320 books related to Baba, selected one incident from each book and crafted the film accordingly. He even dramatized the story at few situations. ‘Shirdi Sai’ will be a landmark film in Nagarjuna garu and Raghavendra Rao garu’s film career."

About Chiranjeevi’s response he said, “Chiranjeevi garu watched this film with his family members. We learnt that his grandmother watched a film after almost 15 years. After watching the film Chiranjeevi garu gave an unforgettable compliment, “You have made a very good film which will be remembered for another 10 generations.”

About Nagarjuna he said, “I developed a great association with Nagarjuna after this movie. He treated me like a friend than a producer.”

About box-office collections he said, “The movie collections are excellent from the opening day. I heard that devotional movies have no market at overseas. But nevertheless ‘Shirdi Sai’ collected about Rs 3 to 4 crores. I got back my investment amount within first two days of the film’s release. I wish to produce more devotional movies along with message oriented movies provided I get good opportunities and stories. But as of now I’ve not planned anything.”

About Vijaya Yatra: “As part of movie success we went on ‘Vijaya Yatra’ from September 11th to 13th in Vijayawada, Guntur, Rajahmundry, Vizag, Kavali and Nellore. There was tremendous response all over right from small children to 90 year old. I felt very happy when I heard people saying that I made a good film. Similarly in Kavali, Nagarjuna garu’s eyes were filled with tears when an aged man stepped forward amidst the huge crowd and complimented him saying, “After NTR it’s only you.” To conclude I want to say that Vijaya Yatra was like a festival.”

He concluded the press meet saying, “My wish to educate people about Baba’s nature has come true. In another 3 months, I’m going to dub ‘Shirdi Sai’ in Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi and Marathi. I want to thank Baba garu and Raghavendra Rao garu for giving me such a wonderful opportunity to produce a film like ‘Shirdi Sai’.”