The light of my life – Padma Vibhushan Ramoji Rao

It was in early 2002 that I visited Ramoji Film City for the first time to attend an interview. As advised, I boarded the film city bus. When asked about how long it would take to reach, an employee sitting right next to me in the bus predicted an hour’s time. He then mumbled something and added – An hour and a half actually. We reached the main gate in an hour and I couldn’t help but look at the gentleman mockingly. Here’s the main gate; how remote could the office premise be? - I comforted myself. However, as the bus got into the campus, I craned up my neck to see what was there in front of us. To my utter disbelief, it seemed that our journey had actually just started with an endless stretch of road lying right in front of us cutting across the wilderness and rocky outskirts. Nine kilometres farther and we reached another gate. That gate unlocked the doors of heaven, I thought. It was beautiful. No, wonder, this was the World's Largest Film Studio Complex – Guinness World Records! I had never imagined that this place was so big and so beautiful! Of course, as days passed by, I realized how conducive the facilities were for film production that brought in filmmakers from almost everywhere to shoot their films here. 

A month into my job, I had my first opportunity during the quarterly meeting to meet the man himself, Sri Ramoji Rao, the creator of this magnificent film city. I was then an Executive Producer with ETV Network. Wearing his trademark all white, as he walked into the room, his aura, disposition and his powerful eyes were impossible to miss. Seeing his larger than life personality, my heart sank assuming the ferocity of the discourse in store for us. However, as he sat down and looked around the nervous faces, he couldn’t help but smile. There was a certain kindness in his eyes as he said, don’t be afraid. The air felt lighter in a moment. Frankly, we didn’t do great that quarter or the next. But he kept his word. He never trampled our confidence. All he did was give us a word of advice. He didn’t lose his patience with us. His way of working was clear - Allow people to take ownership of their work without fearing for their job. They will make mistakes but will learn to grow. Thus, I started my broadcast journey in an environment that didn’t expose me to petty politics because no one needed to find a scapegoat, if things went wrong. All we were exposed to ever was to a very advanced facility that allowed us to graduate from being a role player to a contributor. He created a breed of Executive Producers who had hands-on experience and a complete understanding of programme production, which was a rarity then and is a rarity even now.    

Perhaps all this and more, ignited in me a sense of belonging and thus, two years later when I realized that Sri Rao was in earnest need of someone to strategize and implement a ‘look and feel’ for the network, develop brand guidelines, take charge of Post-Production and guide the network in on-air promotion, with my animation, art, graphics, publicity and programming background, I could dare put forth to him a plan of action.  

Once convinced, it took him no time to pull me four steps up the ladder in one go and made me the Creative Director of the entire ETV Network – a position and designation that was never to have been conferred to anyone else until now in the history of ETV Network. 

My interactions with him became a daily routine. With each passing day, I realized here was a man who was not someone larger than life, but a man with whom you could talk to your heart’s content. An unbiased and fair man, if he believed in someone, he would put his entire weight behind him. Thus, my bond with him grew and it developed into a relationship that could be best described as a father-son duo. I could talk to him about anything under the sky. I also realized how versatile Sri Ramoji Rao was. He was not just an entrepreneur who had will and money. He was a creative genius who knew what he was talking about. He was a brilliant artist. He was a fierce journalist who guided the entire editorial strategy of Eenadu newspaper, the most popular daily in Telugu and a pioneer in bringing out the first of its kind magazine, titled Annadata to highlight the diverse issues faced by the farmers and their resolutions. He represented the pulse of the people with the principle of zero appeasement and unhesitant to be critical even at his own peril. On the other side, here was a man who produced many successful films in multiple Indian languages and took keen interest in storytelling making sure that his films touched the inner core of the masses. All in all, I guess, there’s only a handful like him who ever knew the aspirations of the Telugu people and India as a whole so well, post-Independence.  

He was the most meticulous man I have known. He had everything written down, every report read to every single word and marked. He would keep his notes in three colours – red, green and blue to highlight the gravity of the issue. Even if my meeting with him would be the final meeting of the day, late in the evening, he was as keen and ever attentive as if this was his first meeting of the day. Remember he had a diverse group – finance, broadsheet, hospitality, leisure, films, broadcast and food products. Yet, he had the ability to shift gear and get into the depth of discussion with such ease that it was almost magical. He would still be as patient as if it was the first meeting of the day and as sweet as to offer refreshments before starting the meeting even if he had a long day. There were days when we would stand together in front of the huge oriel window of his office overlooking the hillocks across his office. He would often say how much he wanted to do so much more for the agriculture of the state. He sighed, only if we had a little more water, I would have turned the fate of Andhra Pradesh (then it was the undivided state).  

He would often ask me if I had my second line of defence ready. It’s a human body. You could fall sick or go on a leave. I would shoot back, anyone could fall sick, meaning thereby, even he could. He was the quickest to read in between the lines and would look at me, give me the kindest smile and say, It would happen but for once and that would be the end of it.

Day before as I stood before his mortal remains, I realized there was a man who never broke a promise. He remained active and full as ever until his last. As he promised, it happened but for once and that was the end of it. I became fatherless a second time.

Documentary, animation & ad film director Ambarnath Sinha is also the Former Creative Director - ETV Network (NEWS & Entertainment), Ramoji Film City.