At a recent success meet with distributors in Hyderabad, producer Dil Raju reflected on the journey of Sankranthiki Vasthunnam, starring Venkatesh and directed by Anil Ravipudi.
He acknowledged that the film's success had taught them a valuable lesson, emphasizing that they had been struggling with big combinations for the past four to five years but were now back on track.
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Dil Raju credited Anil Ravipudi for reviving them, stating, "We were on a rough road since COVID, but this film has brought us back onto a smooth path. Now, we are ready to produce films without any setbacks for the next ten years, and success will surely follow."
He also stressed the importance of strong storytelling over high budgets, admitting that they had sometimes lost sight of that principle.
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He further noted that their production journey initially thrived on content-driven films and new directors, many of which turned into classics. "For a while, we focused on star-driven combinations, but now we have realigned ourselves with our core strength," he added.
Dil Raju's West Godavari distributor said, "Anil Ravipudi once again proved that a budget of 200 or 300 crores is not important. If the content is strong, the movie will be a hit. Content is king. The audience wants content."
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Meanwhile, another release from Dil Raju, Game Changer, which was released alongside Sankranthiki Vasthunnam, turned out to be a mega disaster.
Made on a reported budget of 450 crores, it couldn't even collect 180 crores in share, according to trade reports. The film was made in the combination of 'global' star Ram Charan and legendary director Shankar.
Given the comments made by Dil Raju and his distributors today, it feels like they were indirectly trolling their own movie Game Changer, which materialized solely because of the Charan-Shankar combination.
It seemed as if they were targeting their own film without explicitly naming it.