Cinemas Thrive Again: BA Raju

Tollywood’s senior-most PRO and film producer BA Raju, who donned several hats in the industry, celebrates his birthday today. BA Raju’s name is synonymous with Tollywood’s star heroes Mahesh Babu, Prabhas, Akkineni Nagarjuna et al.

Having closely worked with stars and having a career spanning more than three decades, BA Raju says that cinema will thrive notwithstanding the Covid-19 pandemic.

Raju admitted that 2020 has been a worst year for Tollywood and affected the industry like never before. But he is hopeful and optimistic of its recovery. He says cinema finds its ways to reach audience and Telugu audience who love cinema to find their way to cinemas for entertainment.

Raju, a senior journalist, editor, publisher, PRO for over 1000 films, celebrity manager and producer, is hopeful about eventful 2021. He says the film industry is on recovery mode. He said he is expecting that Sankranthi 2021 will be big for Tollywood as films like Krack, Red, Alludu Adhurs and Master prove the strength of cinema again. He says audience are ready to welcome cinema.

The producer of hit films like Lovely, Vaisakham, Raju has introduced actresses like Shanvi Srivastava, Kamna Jethmalani and Suhasini and they have got successful careers. Ask him whether OTTs would be a threat to theatres. Raju differs and says that OTT is not a threat to cinemas. He said both OTTs and Cinemas will work parallel and work in favour of movies.