The obvious ones are biggies like Saina Nehwal, Pullela Gopichand, Narendra Paruchuri of Pragati Offset Pvt Ltd. Some of the other names are big in the Hyderabad society, like a Dinaz who made a career as a fitness trainer, Suhani Pittie – a jewellery designer, Arvind Chenji a leading photographer, Ali Baig – a theatre personality. It has also some really less known names, which make more interesting stories.

I would like to thank Hemant at Radio Mirchi for telling the guys at Passionate Foundation my story and recommending them to feature me. Not many people know that my family wasn’t too happy with my choice to get into films initially. I was coerced into Engineering stream in junior college (MPC) & failed miserably despite best efforts. Despite being from a film family, why wouldn’t my parents want me to join films? Its a long story. It an interesting argument they had. Will save it for another day! Getting into the highly capital-intensive business of print media was my choice. I had no mentors in it. I jumped into it purely out of passion, made mistakes, learnt from them & totally love my job now. Southscope will be the beginning to my longer journey in the media.

While I am amongst the fortunate amongst the ones featured in the magazine, having faced very less obstacles in my career, my choices have been unconventional & I am as passionate as the rest of them. Do read my story. And do share yours if its an unconventional & interesting one. Adios!

1) Micheal Dell, founder – Dell

Dropped out of University of Texas, Austin at 19 to business full time. Founded Dell by opening up his Mac and rebuilt to see if he could. Today, he is worth $15.5 bn.

2) Sir Richard Brandson, The Virgin Group

Suffered from dyslexia in school, and dropped out of high school itself to open a music store named ‘Virgin’ in London. From there he expanded into telecom airlines, radio. He is worth $ 2.8 bn and is known for his lavish lifestyle.

3) Steve Jobs, Founder – Apple

Valmiki who wrote the Ramayana was once a thief. Jobs was once a hacker who made a machine that let people make illegal calls. And then, like the former he too drove his energies in the positive direction to do something that is remembered forever. Jobs was a geek who dropped out of Reed College, Portland after one semester to start out in business. Today he is worth over $5 bn

4) Ralph Lauren, Founder – Polo clothing line

Ralph’s surname was Lifshitz which he changed to Lauren to disguise his Jewish roots. He worked after school in the Bronx to earn money to buy suits. Dropped out of the City College of New York after two years. Dint attend fashion school either to start Polo, initially a necktie brand. Today, he is worth $3.5 bn.

5) Ted Turner, founder – CNN, owner – MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon

Dropped out Brown University to join his father’s billboard business. He sold that to fund ‘Cable News Network’, the channel that revolutionized TV viewing with its live coverage of the Gulf war. Turner went ahead to buy over MTV, Nickelodeon and is the head of the broadcasting empire – Time Warner, that he built. He also built ESPN which was later bought over by Disney. The maverick retired young at 67 and is worth $ 4.7bn.

People’s recommendations : Mark Zuckerberg (Founder-CEO, Facebook), Dhirubhai Ambani (Reliance Industries), Will Smith (Rapper turned Hollywood superstar). Will add more!

These are just some of the few people from the western world. There are many other lesser known billionaires who quit studying. For every B-school topper who made it big, I can point out three who dint have great formal education. For all these men were not great ‘graduates’, but great ‘learners’ if you know what the difference is. There are many more people who fit into the ‘Drop-outs Hall of Fame’ like Thomas Alva Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Willis and Woody Allen. But these great men weren’t entrepreneurs while some of them would be worth in billions too. So my fellow men, take pride in our tribe coz we redefined what success is with our failures. And purely co-incidental that there is no famous woman entrepreneur who was a college dropout. Oops!

Our first venture in exhibition is a super-success. “Geetha Apsara” is the number one theater in Rajahmundry, and has the highest ‘average occupany rate’ in South India at 72% (our estimate, even India as attendance levels are much lower up North). We have acquired another theatre Teja in Palakol (our ancestral home town) and going to revamp it soon. On the distribution front – we have a great year with Leader, Avatar (Andhra Pradesh), Magadheera & Mahatma. This year’s line up includes Pawan Kalyan’s Puli, Mahesh Babu & Trivikram’s untitled film. We’re also looking at acquiring another ‘big budget’ film.

In our ‘core business’, film production other than Dad, we have two promising producers on board, B. Madhu (producer of Tagore & Ghajini [Hindi], co-producer Stalin) & Mr. Bunny Vasu who is turning a Producer with our untitled film directed by Sukumar. So Sukumar’s film, Allu Arjun’s Badrinath are our present ‘production’ projects for the year. Add to that, the tamil dubbed version of Magadheera, which will release in the second half of the year. We’ve joined hands with a A-list Tamil producer give it a big release in Tamil Nadu.

Also, I will be joining the Producers list by taking a project some time later, this year. So, we’re going through an exciting phase of making changes in the company, bottom-up. To accommodate these needs, we need more office space. We already have two satellite offices in Jubilee Hills and taking one more. This is excluding the Southscope office, which is a subsidiary of Geetha Arts. In our head quarters in Road 45, Jubilee – we have another floor with a swanky, new Google & Twitter-like office where me, Bunny (Allu Arjun) and my eldest brother Bobby (Allu Venkatesh) will operate out of. I will upload pictures of that office soon here. I am still active in the everyday management in Southscope, but wouldn’t be next year onwards after setting a professional management to run it. Other than these, personally I have floated two small but very exciting businesses. They’re all a part of my “larger plan” and are very exciting. Will update you about them, as they roll out.

I play small, yet significant roles in Geetha Arts – what ever my father Mr. Allu Arvind delegates to me. He still runs the show, calls the shots and is backed by an efficient team who has been with him for over 30 years. Other than seniors, we have also included some new people into the senior management. I will introduce them to you later, on this blog. Amongst the works I do at Geetha Arts is ‘branding’ as I always had the knack for it. But wait, mine is not too glamorous a job! I also do “admin” work like hunting for new offices, upgrading computers & equipment. We’ve designed a enterprise software, for “project management” which is suited to our unique needs. I also got to do some classic CEO-like stuff of hiring the new top-level management & exploring new business opportunities. I am getting trained in all the departments, so that I will be equipped to do bigger stuff in the future. Read the About page of this blog to know more about my ambition.

Soon, we’re going to ramp up our presence on the online medium – which includes a website and an official company blog. My father himself wants to write some stuff! You should read them as we both have totally contradictory opinions on many issues. Also, I want to set up a strong online presence for our stars Allu Arjun & Ram Charan (like a blog & if they’re interested Twitter). Both of them are actually tech-saavy : They use Blackberries, shop & make travel bookings themselves online. For all this I am putting together a small team as support staff. We’re looking for a small, hip webdesign studio to execute this project (Geetha Arts website, Allu Arjun & Ram Charan official website) on BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) basis.

In the past, we got a brand new logo. A Mumbai-based agency “Ink Inc” had designed it. Following our bold, minimalist logo we have designed some stationary too using the same principles. So, we consciously avoided color and stuck to greyscale. Also, all the employees & stakeholders in the company approved of it. I am just sharing them with you. Hope you liked them!

This is one amongst the regular dose of shit.. oops, ‘yellow journalism’ being churned out by that lady. Some of them are blunt like my marriage, which need to be out rightly denied and clarified. While the others are cleverly drafted trivia made to sound believable, too insignificant to react, yet maligning the character of the victim. If that blog is continually giving false news, then why are people reading it. My answer – schadenfreude. People who despise our family worship that blog, hoping either one of those rumors will turn out to be true. Sadly, none so far. In our society, bad spreads faster than good. A few other sites too blindly carried this news and I had some distant friends shoot me mails too. So, I thought I’d clarify it once in for all.

Actually, this gossip actually made me happy – for two reasons. 1) Though I am not a celebrity yet, but my popularity is rising – to the extent that gossip is being written about my personal life! How cool is that? 2) Thanks to my blog & social media – I atleast get to clarify the truth. I guess not many people are really interested in my personal life, but whenever that “shubhavaartha” happens, I will sure post it on my blog. Till then, happy reading! I am working of a couple of issues I want to cover. This time, instead of just writing from my experience and point-of-view, I am also taking quotes from people in the industry.

PS : Intuition tells me in retaliation for exposing the journalist, she would churn out nastier or ‘jucier’ gossip about me or my family immediately or in the near future. But, I am sure by now your good sense will tell you what to believe.

While naming brands or companies, I usually avoid Indian words as very few sound ‘brandable’. Also very few Indian words are ‘universal’ in nature like shastra, sutra, avatar or karma. Also, I felt names Shaadi, Baazee, JeevanSathi, Naukri or Masti doesn’t translate well across cultures in India. I myself dint know what Baazee meant till some one told me. Nor what the much-used ‘Jugaad’ meant for that matter, though I learnt Hindi in school. Also spelling them makes it harder. The brand is spelled as JeevanSathi, but ‘sathi’ is pronounced as ‘saa-thi’. Also if Jugaad or Masti have an H as they’re pronounced ”ju-gaadh” or “mas-thee”. Hence I stick to English words. My magazine’s is name Southscope, a word I came up with. I coined the name “Green Channel Forex” to my aunt who setup a travel & forex agency. Also, suggested my friend Madhu Mantena the name “Cinergy Productions” (cinema – synergy) for his film production company. I came up with another English word for one of the new businesses I am setting up. But, its quite surprising that some body at the other end of the globe actually considered a telugu name for their business. Hop over to Ooyala  (http://www.ooyala.com/about) and have a look at their site. Hope the name works for their brand.

“Talking about website reviews about Leader movie. As usual website reviewers play a spoilsport just like they did with Arya2. Reviews say that the whole romantic thread is unnecessary in the movie. Assume if Sekhar Kammula hadn’t had inserted a romantic thread in the movie and had dealt completely with the political drama then Reviewers would have told that the Glamour quotient in the movie is missing so its difficult to pull crowd to the theatre. Thats precisely why I feel that Reviews are never a benchmark to measure movie success. Reviews nowadays have become more of a personal opinion than a “thought process” with a whole motive of degrading the commercial success of the movie.
Just for some fun I would like to draw an analogy about what would have happened if website reviewers existed in 1950 and 1960 era.

For example if you imagine that website reviewers penning their opinion on ANR’s classic blockbuster Devdas
1. Narration of the movie is slow and it can hardly get any response in B and C centres
2. Hero dies in the climax of the movie. Need to wait and see how the response would be from Andhra cine goers who generally doesn’t digest a tragic ending.
3. Being such a Big hero, ANR shouldn’t have accepted such movies where he simply ends his life for a girl.This will create a wrong impact on present generation youth. Life is more than losing your love…Blah Blah Blah
4. ANR from now onwards should accept characters which will motivate the youth and should become a youth icon..Blah Blah

and the finally the rating would have said
2.5 / 5.
The commercial success of the movie depends on how B and C centres accept the movie.”

Almost all readers have complains on reviews, but can’t help from reading them. The movie-going audience in Andhra Pradesh are really review-proof. They rely more on word-of-mouth or “talk” as call it locally to decide whether they want to watch movies. The online reviews are more aimed at the overseas audience. Unlike in India, audience overseas have to spend more money, a lot more time and effort to go watch a movie. And they have more entertainment options, so would carefully review their options. Earlier, reviews on the internet had a huge impact on the overseas collection. Most of them relied on a single voice, Jeevi of Idlebrain. But, as the net grew – so did the numbers of voices. And all reviews are not a single mass with a same opinion. Their opinions are highly polarized. But, most reviews write like they’re distributors instead of reviewers. How much the movie cost, or how big a hit it will be is irrelevant to most people. People look to reviews to know about the cinematic merits of the movie. Those who are interested in the numbers have other sources for what they seek. Luckily today, with the social-media like Twitter and Facebook people have friends & family’s whose judgement they trust to know about the movies they want to see. Most websites have given Pokiri an average rating, when it released. I cant remember a review which stated it would become the highest grosser. But, the movie eventually did end up being that. Same case with Magadheera.

Why Southscope doesn’t do reviews?

The main reason is time factor. Ours is a monthly, and the public would have already decided the movie’s fate. The other factor is review is one person’s opinion of what he/she thinks of the movie – not necessarily the organisation. What if my Editor or I liked the movie immensely, and my reviewer felt it was awful? Whose voice should be the voice of the magazine? Hence, we approached our review section differently. Our review is more like a post-mortem on what worked and what dint. We break our reviews into two sections – “What’s Good?” and “Could’ve been better.” We don’t give ratings nor tell whether you should spend your $8 in watching the movie. We arrive at a consensus on what’s good and what’s not – and then present them. Its up to you to decide whether you want to review a work. But we don’t want to curb the voices of our writers. I have seen large organisations like CNN-IBN, BusinessWeek, New York Times lets their journalists have their own blogs. The person can post their opinions on anything, while staying within editorial guidelines. And most times, there are two contrasting opinions from different people in the same organisation. Its their individual opinion. Organisations usually cannot have a ‘stance’ on such issues. Movies and liking are subjective. Hence, when our active website goes live – we would let writer have their own blogs.

PS, Correction : ANR’s Devadasu in 1953, was the first cinematic adaptation second cinematic adaptation of Saratchandra’s novel – Devadas much ahead of the Dilip Kumar’s version in 1955, Yes, the Telugu industry was that progressive back in the 50s! As pointed in the comment section & wikipedia – the first adaptation was by PC Barua in 1935.

Eliminating corruption impossible : Many idealistic movies are made, where hero is able to eliminate corruption completely (Tagore, Oke Okkadu, Gentleman). While I love those movies, age and experience taught me that they’re not possible in real life. It’s imbibed in the system at every level. The hero though starts at an idealistic note, later is willing to adapt. He agrees to drop cases against MLAs, so that they agree to the anti-corruption bill. The logic – even if you cant eliminate corruption totality, reduce it to as much as possible.

The contribution of beaurocracy : In a lot of the movies we see, its always shown that only political leaders run the state. While they are the ones who rule, the beaurocracy like IAS, collectors and police chiefs are the invisible hands most don’t see. They advice politicians on policies implement his vision and make his job easier with their intelligence and efficiency. In this movie they are shown as an integral part of the government. Their relation is more like a CEO and mid-level staff. Good top-level execs alone aren’t enough for him to implement his vision.

Hero’s acceptance of defeat : Realizing that ‘situations’ are forcing him to become like any other politician he accepts defeat and resigns from his post as a Chief Minister. Again this is idealistic, but in commercial cinema we cannot end it like that. It will give a wrong message that the system cannot be changed. The climax portion was convincing in cinematic terms.

Hero’s helplessness in delivering justice : I think this whole episode was handled fantastically. The hero knows he has no option but to let go a rapist to remain in power. The confrontation between Rana and the bailed rapist is brilliant. His confession of helplessness to the rape victim’s father and the father’s dialogs expressing mistrust in politicians is hard-hitting. Kudos!

Maa Telugu thalliki Mallepoo dhanda : I think it’s a noble idea to use this song as a background score. It gave me the goosebumps. The song is so relevant to our state in today’s time which reminds that despite differences between us, we’re all Telugu.

Further viewing : Political thrillers is a genre that appeals to me. Some films are realistic, some cinematic. I would like to mention some lesser known films instead of popular ones. I am sure there are many movies in other languages I am not aware of. Tell about them in the comments section and I shall include it.

1) Operation Duryodhana – Made on a shoe-string budget, this movie is a satire. Most populist films show politicians at corrupt and public as innocent. But this film shows that the public is also at fault.
2) Tamizhan (tamil film) – This Vijay and Priyanka Chopra starrer is a must-watch for genre fans. Its about a law graduate who educates the common man on how the people of power suppress them wrongly as they don’t know how law works and what are the rights they’re entitled to.
3) Saamanyudu – A more cinematic, than realistic film. Its about an editor who blackmails a corrupt home-minister into doing good things and finally turning a good man. A good watch, none the less.

But, what I wanted to bring to light is the fact that the management of TV channels have fed their journalists that “more TRP = more money”. Which is totally true, isn’t it? If a channel gets higher TRPs, they can charge more money from the advertisers. True, but not all the time.

We’re aware in the recent times, there is a lot of unrest in the state. Incidents have been occurring repeatedly which have disrupted normal life. Be it the Telangana movement, alleged N.D Tiwari scandal or the conspiracy behind YSR’s death. When so much is happening, it’s the media’s duty to report and cover it.

While doing that, almost all of the media went overboard at many occasions. There is no denying that there is civil unrest. But by repeatedly telecasting it, magnifying the violence and sensationalizing, it caused a “multiplier effect”. Instead of pacifying the situation, it made it worse. With all this coverage, the media has infused “fear” into the minds of the common man. They were successfully able to get people glued to TV and consume news.

Now, after successfully increasing their viewership by huge margins the channels tried to hike their ad rates, expecting to make more money. But, the move backfired. Big time. Most news channels are free-to-air and advertising is their prime source of revenue. Especially for telugu channels, regional advertisers form a major chunk of their revenues. Most local advertisers, reduced the money they spend on ads than previous months. Forget increasing it. Why? Cuz people are simply not spending money! People are more indoor now due to frequent bandhs, disruption of normal life and the “dull mood” prevailing in the society. This naturally leads to lower spending by people.

Advertising’s prime function is to drive consumption and increase it. When that’s not happening (due to external factors), what’s the point in advertising? To make it simple, why should stores advertise when people are not interested in buying. December-January is a festive season where consumption (thereby, advertising) increases. But, instead of a sales increase, they have plummeted steeply. So, instead of spending their money now – advertisers want to save that for later, when normalcy returns and people start buying again.

Despite of increased viewership, ad sales in television channels aren’t as much as they were in the previous months. So, our media have learnt a hard lesson that viewership is of no use if there is no advertising. And advertising is of no use, if people are not buying. A perfectly logical series of events has taken place that could serve to restore balance, establish limits, and teach some harsh lessons. Television is powerful, but the source of that power is the people. People cant be measured in terms of TRPs, but should now be respected for what they are – the drivers of this economy. The media industry can never afford to take lightly the ability of its consumers to serve out a severe backlash.  In this case, the marketplace did.

Hey all.. I have not been active on my blog for the last few months as I was working on a couple of projects. One is Magadheera, a movie produced by our company – Geetha Arts. The movie released recently and turned out to be a smashing hit. Its one the way to become the highest grosser in telugu cinema, showcasing the revenue potential of the industry. The production of our next film, will hopefully begin in January 2010. That will also be a big-budget telugu film.

The other is an a “pet project” I have been working for the past six months. I have this ‘sentiment’ like most people working in the film industry. If I announce something while the work is in progress, something goes wrong. Hence, though I am excited I am holding it back. Its something to do with South Indian cinema, though not a movie exactly. I will reveal the details soon, most probably in 2-3 weeks. I am giving the final touches to my new baby.

I usually, try to keep my personal banter to the minimum on my blog. I am looking for a topic, on which I can research, add my perspective and share with you guys. I have some free-time now. So that should again be something you will read here soon.

In the meanwhile, stay tuned to me occasional tweets on : http://www.twitter.com/allusirish