Vangaveeti is like full meals minus Khilli, says Dasari

Producer Dasari Kiran has rebutted the criticism that ‘Vangaveeti’ has distorted the facts. “The idea of ‘Vangaveeti’ is to show the facts as they are. How various characters reacted to situations is what we have tried to show in the movie. Vangaveeti Ranga and Devineni brothers were friends, but eventually they parted ways. Those who are saying that our film hasn’t portrayed the facts, I ask them ‘Do you know the facts?'” he retorts.  

Ask him as to why Ranga’s story takes a backseat in the second half, pat comes the reply that nobody can satisfy everyone. “I can understand this criticism. Some fans of Ranga have told me that even though they enjoyed the movie, some 10 minutes more related on him should have been there. They tell me that they got full meals, but didn’t get ‘khilli’!” 

“All these finger-pointing shows that you like our movie. If you didn’t like it, you wouldn’t be discussing it in the first place,” he shoots back.  

But why have the filmmakers shied away from showing who killed Ranga. “When all the governments and the Supreme Court itself couldn’t crack it, how can we say that in our film. Do you expect us to say things which the SC struck off? That’s why we have closed it with RGV saying that only Kanaka Durgamma knows the truth,” he says.  

Dasari admittedly faced too many problems for producing a movie on the Vangaveeti-Devineni rivalry. “The kind of problems I have faced from the time I announced the film, no other producer ever faced. The AP film chamber refused to register the title ‘Vangaveeti’, which the Telangana film chamber did.  What stopped the former from doing it while the latter was ready?  We had legal issues, issues with Censor, etc. Some individuals were behind all this.  But I should say that no political party per se created the problems. It’s only a few individuals who did it,” he adds.  

“I made this film on my own. No financier would have come forward to fund a movie like this because nobody can be sure as to when it would be stopped,” he quips.