September 15, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): The first things that strike you about the 75-year old doyen of Telugu cinema D Ramanaidu, who gave Hindi cinema blockbusters like Premnagar, Tohfa and Maqsad, are his passion for cinema, his humility and practicality.

He is quite thrilled for having won the highest honour from the Indian government for cultural activity.

Says Ramanaidu, "I'm the first Telugu filmmaker to win the Dadasaheb in 20 years. So when I heard about it I was naturally elated. But there are no fullstops in my career. I've produced over 130 films in 12 languages. Now I'm producing a film in Punjabi for the first time."

As excited as a schoolboy about film production, Ramanaidu, who started producing films in 1963 is realistic enough to see how much the film market has slumped. He admits he hasn't produced a film in Hindi for quite a while because of the slump. The softspoken movie baron candidly admits, "Earlier I used to remake my Telugu hits into Hindi. But none of my Telugu films have done well recently. I've recently been busy producing Gujarati and Bhojpuri films. But now I will definitely produce another Hindi film very soon."

Ramanaidu says he keeps up with changing trends in world cinema through his children. "My son and now my grandsons have joined me. We are family completely consumed by cinema. We virtually live for cinema. I've been witness to many changing trends in moviemaking. Our production house keeps abreast of these changes."

For this diehard filmmaker movie-making is the only option. "I'll never retire. If I don't make movies I wouldn't know what to do."

-- Subhash K Jha / Sampurn Wire