Meet Venkat Siddareddy, who is straddling the world of film making and literature with equal passion

Not many of us are fortunate enough to make our passion into profession. But for those who do manage to do so, it takes a lot of hard work, time and patience. Venkat Siddareddy, who is straddling the world of film making and literature with equal passion agrees.

Writing has always been Venkat's passion and his love for cinema is inexpressible. After working as a software engineer for 10 years in United Kingdom, he came back to India to work for Telugu films and began working for Suresh Productions and wore many hats there. He worked as an executive producer for critically acclaimed films like 'Ee Nagaraniki Emaindhi', 'C/o Kancherapalem, Mallesham and many other popular and successful films which have been produced under Suresh Productions. He also used to take classes for budding filmmakers at Ramanaidu Film School.

Earlier, love stories were in trend. But with different genres picking up, Telugu filmmakers have shifted their focus to thrillers and horrors. Venkat, who feels that there is lack of love stories in the film industry says, reading books, which can tell some great stories will help in coming up with some beautiful stories for films.

"I realised that as a part of filmmaking, there is no proper literature for budding filmmakers to go through in order to make films. So, I thought of working on it and began writing 'Cinema Kathalu'. The speciality of the book is that I have written the stories based on some amazing feature movies with some changes to the script according to our nativity so that the readers would relate to them easily. 'Cinema Kathalu' is all such beautiful films like 'In The Mood For Love', 'Memento', 'Rashomon', 'Secret Life of Walter', 'Lutera' and others," said Venkat.

In the year 2018, for the first time Venkat Siddareddy decided to put up a stall at the Hyderabad Book Fair. His idea was to sell only one book at the stall. While many discouraged him saying that there won't be much sales when there's only one book in the stall, he went ahead and put the book he wrote.

"When the book fair draws such a huge crowd every year, is it so difficult to sell 1000 copies of a book, which is all about films? I took it as a challenge and the result was amazing," he shares. He wanted to sell atleast 1000 copies by the end of the fair.

He managed to sell 2000 copies of it. "My friends have helped by funding the publishing of the books I have written and translated. It is very unfortunate for a writer to publish his own books," he adds. Apart from 'Cinema Kathalu', he has written and published books like 'Cinema Oka Alchemy', 'Tholiprema Kathalu, and a compilation of love stories 'In the Mood for Love'.

It is very much true that someone has to show the right path to all those passionate youngsters who want to make it big in films, in some or the other way. Venkat's books, in addition to adding their might to the new age Telugu literature, also are like guiding lights to the young filmmakers.

Venkat Siddareddy's books that were received enthusiastically at the Hyderabad Book Fair will also be available for sale at the upcoming Vijayawada's Book Fair. He is planning to publish atleast 3000 copies of his new book, and promises, "We will make sure people know that it is going to be a gem of all books."