Suri swears by versatility

Director Surender Reddy is back in the spotlight as his last Friday release ‘Dhruva’ has ended Ram Charan’s poor run at the box-office. Ever since he made his debut with ‘Athanokkade’ back in 2005, his films have been performing inconsistently at the box-office. Would he like to change that moving forward? “Every time after delivering a hit, I’m following it up by trying something different and that has been the undoing.

After ‘Kick’, I’ve made ‘Oosaravelli’, which was something very new script-wise and on NTR but it didn’t work out. Similarly I followed up ‘Race Gurram’ with ‘Kick 2’, which though was a regular film was still risky, but it too failed to click. I don’t know whether it would be the same in the future too but I’m trying,” he responds speaking to Talkies.

But does he worry that he lags behind in fame when compared to a Koratala Siva or some other successful directors who have made their directorial debut much later than him? “I have a certain reputation of experimenting with the content and I want to adhere to it. If I want to deliver hits all the time, I don’t think you can expect different cinema from me.

I’ve been hopping genres with every film and ask these successful directors to do a contemporary film like ‘Athanokkade’? Or for that matter a commercial yet different flick like ‘Kick’? I can do what they are doing but I don’t want to,” he asserts, adding, “Although I was reluctant to remake ‘Thani Oruvan’ to begin with, I accepted because it’s a new genre and the emphasis was more on content. I don’t believe in repeating myself and maybe that’s why I’m lagging behind in fame. But I have no issues as long as I’m doing what I love.”