Rana Daggubati emphasises on need for literature in films

Actor-producer Rana Daggubati says there is a huge appetite for cinema, but very few people understand that if there is a need for cinema then there will also be a need for literature. And if literature is not taken as the base of films, then it would be "very difficult" to tell stories.

According to the "Baahubali" star, who was born in the illustrious Daggubati-Akkineni family, literature plays an important role in making a film or telling stories on the big screen.

"If we look at the movie business 50 or 60 years ago, a majority of the content came from literature writers or scholars of that time. Today, that ecosystem is kind of breaking. There is need for more and more cinema, but very few people understand that if there is need for cinema, there is need for literature as well," Rana told IANS in a telephonic interview.

"So, unless we capture it... make literature as the base, storytelling will become very difficult."

Which is why Rana's Suresh Productions and Kwan Entertainment have joined hands to introduce a specialised division -- Kwan South -- as an entertainment marketplace with a regional focus.

Kwan South has put together a Literature Team or the Lit Team whose sole purpose is to generate the best content and to help this find an audience.

The actor will mentor the team and overlook the complete process of taking the right stories to the right place at the right time.

And they are open to all kinds of content.

"India is a land full of stories -- whether it is history, mythology or folklore, which come from our own literature. As a film production company, our appetite is big and so is the consumer's appetite.

"There will be Telugu, Hindi and Tamil writers. It is understood that putting all of them together has made our way of working better than what we have been able to do in all these years," the National Award-winning producer said.

The focus is mostly on the southern film industry but he would like to hire writers from other regions as well.

"We started from Hyderabad and Chennai. Obviously, we would like to hire people from other industries. That's the best way forward," said the actor, who has done films in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi.

Bollywood's love for south Indian films refuses to die. "OK Jaanu", "Drishyam" and "Akira" are some of the Hindi films which are remakes of south Indian movies.

"India is like a country and a continent too. We have advantages in this field. If it's a good story made in Malayalam, we can make it in four other languages and a different set of audience will get to watch it for the first time.

"It's not like an American can make a film in New York and remake it in Los Angeles. I, on the other hand, can make a film in Hyderabad and remake it in Mumbai. It's very important to tell good stories. So this way, writers from everywhere get to tell their stories in whichever language. Ultimately, language is only one functionality," he said.

Sharing an example, he said: "I read Ramayana in a different language, you read it in another language. It doesn't matter, it is still the same story. Story can be the same, doesn't matter which language you tell it in."

But he also pointed out that content defines what language or industry it can go into.

"Take a film like 'Gangs of Wasseypur', which is set in that place. I can't remake it in another language because it's regional and specific to that town or city. I can probably take reference and rewrite or adapt it.

"So, there will be some films that can be made for multiple languages like I did 'Baahubali' and 'The Ghazi Attack'. Both were made in Telugu as well as other languages like Hindi and Tamil," said the actor, who will be soon seen in "N. T. R.".

(Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at natalia.n@ians.in)

--IANS

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