This Telugu Heroine Is CBI Officer’s Daughter

After a long time, Ravi Teja has done a content-rich movie Ramarao On Duty which is up for relrease on July 29th. Rajisha Vijayan who played one of the leading ladies in the movie spoke with media today. Here’re are excerpts:

How did you get Ramarao On Duty?
I got a call from Sarath sir who said he’s doing a movie with Ravi Teja sir. He watched Dhanush’s Karnan. He informed me that there are two characters. My character name is Malini. I liked the story. When I enter other language, I wanted my character to have substance to perform and screen space is no big deal for me. Coming to Ramarao, my character was the reason why things are happening in the film.

How many days did you shoot for the film?
Because of covid, the film got delayed. I shot my portion for 20 days.

Share your experience of working with Ravi Teja. Did you watch his previous movies?
Basically, I was brought up in north India. My dad was in army and then in CBI. We’re always getting transferred. I’ve not lived a lot in Kerala. Most films I watched were Hindi. I watched many films of Ravi Teja’s films. I used to think that he was a Hindi hero. Of late, there is lots of talk going on about Pan India films. However, Ravi Teja had the reach long ago. I’m his fan. He’s a superstar. My first scene in the movie was a sad and depressed one. Ravi Teja sir is so humble and genuine. He’s a fan person to be with. There is energy whenever he’s around.

How many songs do you have?
The movie has 4 songs in total. I’ve one song Bul Bul Tarang. One is intro of Ravi Teja, Divyansha has one song and the last one is a special number.

Tell us about your working experience with Sarath?
Sarath is a perfectionist. He has so much clarity. He fights for what he wants. The film has all the entertainment and commercial elements. But at the end of the day there is a very strong thread in the movie. It speaks about a social issue happened in 1995 and it is relevant today also. When an audience is watching, it’s entertaining of course, but at the same time, it’s thought-provoking.

Did you dub for the movie?
I didn’t dub. I’m learning Telugu. I’ll definitely do. I learnt Tamil and dubbed for Karthi’s Sardar.

What difference you found in Tollywood, compared to other industries?
What I observed was Telugu has lot of budgets, compared to Malayalam and even Tamil. It helps because to bring big canvas films. We work in single schedules in Malayalam. It’s easy here. We have the opportunity to work in different schedules. Because of OTT, I feel like, we all are breaking language barrios. We are watching movies of different languages. That is the reason why Bollywood suddenly wondering how come south films are becoming Pan India films. Our films are traveling across.

Many Malayalam films are getting remade in Telugu these days, what do you say?
I feel like in Malayalam, script is more important, than the director or script writer. Unlike we lock a bound script, we don’t start shoot.

What do you say about negative impact of OTT On theatres?
Mamootty was doing this film called Perambu. One of his AD’s was not happy with a shot. Mommootty sir told him, “You’re watching it on monitor and I’m acting for the big screen. We’re making films, thinking someday it’s going to come in theatres. Cinema deserves a theatre experience. We can’t force audience. We’re requesting and begging them. It’s important that we keep the theatre experience alive. I hope, people come to theatres to watch Ramarao On Duty in theatres. I think a cinema should make a person’s brain work.