Gaali Sampath’s Strength Is Its Story: Sree Vishnu

Sree Vishnu, whose next Gaali Sampath is releasing on 11th March, shares that the strength of the film lies in its story. He says that story is what has impressed him the most. Vishnu admits that Gaali Sampath was not part of his initial line-up and it suddenly came into the picture after lockdown.

“It began when director Anil Ravipudi garu called me one fine day and told me that he would like to narrate a story to me and I was quite surprised. Producers too had informed me that Anil garu wants me to narrate the story. When he did, I was so stunned and excited as this was not the story that he would usually pick. Without any second thought, I’ve said yes. I didn’t even know who was going to direct the film, but I said yes to the film. Since, stories like these need acceptance from actors. This would make many star directors like Anil Ravipudi garu take this experimental route,” says Vishnu.

“The story of Gaali Sampath has a universal point of father-son conflict which has been dealt well. The emotional point is going to thug the heartstrings. Usually, fathers are responsible whereas sons are shown irresponsible. Whereas in Gaali Sampath, it is the other way around. This sets the interesting premise. When the father character Gaali Sampath (Rajendra Prasad) has a physical challenge that he can’t speak. What happens when he falls in a pit accidentally? From there, the story has interesting threads and this needs to be seen only on the big screen,” adds Vishnu. 

Ask him about the film’s title being named after Rajendra Prasad’s character. Doesn’t he have any qualms about it? “Frankly, I’ve no qualms. Anil garu, director and producers had told me they are considering Gaali Sampath as the title. I said that is a great idea and we should go ahead with it. Seeing my reaction, the team was in shock. They didn’t expect that I would agree to it immediately. Naming the film based on the central character is not new. The central character is not necessarily a lead actor. Be it Missamma or Gundamma Katha or even Malliswari (Venkatesh and Katrina Kaif-starrer) were not named after the hero. The audiences have accepted them well. Rajendra Prasad garu is such a great actor and this is my small tribute to him. I’m happy and proud that I’ve got such an opportunity to give tribute to him through Gaali Sampath.”

Has Tippara Meesam’s result disappointed him? “Yes, Thippara Meesam did disappoint me. We knew we were going on reverse characterisation. There are films that turned out to be blockbusters on such negative and grey shade characterizations. At the same time, some films didn’t work. It was unfortunate that Thippara Meesam couldn’t meet the expectations. After putting in a lot of effort, when a film doesn’t do well, it pains so much.”

Veering towards his upcoming films, Sree Vishnu has quite an interesting line-up. He has Raja Raja Chora in which he plays a petty thief and this film has been told in an entertaining way. He has two more films – one is with Banam director Chaitanya and other one with a new director. Sree Vishnu has a couple of films that are in the discussion stage.