After much hard work, Dil Raju and team have readied the first copy of 'Fidaa'. As the rom-com hits the screens on July 21st, the ace producer talks about what is unique about this film, the controversies surrounding 'DJ', his upcoming projects, and more.

How the project fell in place:

Even when we did 'Happy Days', the wavelength between us (Dil Raju and Sekhar Kammula) was great. He never approached me after that film. Suddenly on a day, he approached me with the script of 'Fidaa'. When I heard the narration, I felt it would make a fell-good movie. It's an out-and-out love story with emotions that family audiences will surely love.

How Varun Tej was finalized:

The script was narrated to three heroes or so. While they all liked it, they felt they may not be the right ones to do it. It's a simple story with a lot of moments. This is when I felt that we should go with an upcoming hero. So, Varun Tej was chosen.

Story matters, not image:

When Pawan Kalyan garu did 'Toli Prema', it was his 4th movie. 'Arya' was Bunny's second movie. Considering these examples, I felt Varun Tej should do a 'Fidaa' at this juncture in his career.

Varun's previous movies haven't worked commercially. Nobody expects to watch him only if he beats up villains, etc. When Mahesh Babu garu did 'SVSC', when NTR garu did 'Brindavanam', etc, nobody expected them to do more of action. How a star behaves depends on the script.

When Naga Babu garu watched the movie, he was so excited that he wanted to make Chiranjeevi garu watch it as soon as possible.

Sai Pallavi, the performer:

We waited for Sai Pallavi to complete her medicine. In the meanwhile, we spent 6 more months on evolving the script. She is an awesome performer. She learnt the Telangana slang and did the dubbing. She has got a lot of resolve. She will be totally different in 'MCA', where her slang is different.

The conflict in 'Fidaa':

She is a rebel in the movie. In contrast, Varun Tej is a soft guy, being an NRI. That's what drives the conflict in the story. It's a delicate emotional point that I liked the most about the script. Sekhar believes in writing special moments. 'Anand' and 'Happy Days' too were full of beautiful moments. He doesn't write great stories; he writes great moments.

Budget is not an issue:

It doesn't matter that this might be the costliest Sekhar Kammula movie. If the script is good, one can spend anything. As a producer, I have my calculations as to how much I should spend on a script. It's not the director's call, but the producer's. Because of delay (owing to Varun Tej's fracture), the costs went up by 10 per cent.

Another hat-trick? Let's see:

'Shatamanam Bhavati', 'Nenu Local' and 'DJ' this year have given a big boost. There are going to be three more releases this year. Let's see if our banner will score another hat-trick.

'Dj' controversy is unwarranted:

I never make statements that have no value. You see my history for yourself. If my film doesn't make money, there is no point in going to the town to say that it made money. That would be akin to fooling myself. If a film gets divide talk, I wait a few days and only then make a statement.

'DJ' should be compared with 'Sarrainodu', which was a big hit. And 'DJ' is a bigger hit than Bunny's previous film. A film's BO performance has to be compared with the concerned hero's previous film's performance, not with a 'Khaidi No. 150'.

My distributors are regular ones:

Some of them are alleging that my distributors earned a loss of 30 per cent on 'DJ'. This is completely false. Why this false propaganda, I don't understand. Take it from me, Dil Raju never gives a false statement. I get BO figures on a day-to-day basis. My distributors are mostly the same ones. I repeat them. And in some territories, we ourselves distribute our own movies.

Stopping fan wars is heroes' mandate:

All heroes should make an appeal during audio functions, etc to fans to end fan wars. Competition should be to make better movies. The heroes should try to impress upon their fans that it's not the right culture to run down other movies, etc.

Don't know anything about drugs issue:

Luckily, I was to the US all those days. It's only in the early morning that I came to India. I am occupied with 'Fidaa' for the next few days.

Upcoming movies:

As of now, only the Mahesh Babu-Vamsi Paidipally movie has been locked. It will go to sets in January, after Sankranthi. Later, 'Srinivasa Kalyanam' will go to sets.

Ram Charan's movie is yet to be finalized. We are yet to have a script and a director in place. People keep writing things like 'Dil Raju's film with Pawan Kalyan', etc. They are all rumours. If something is locked, we ourselves say it officially.

'Raja The Great' will be released on October 12th. 'MCA' will be released in December.