Its been one long journey for actor turned director D Rajendra Babu who completes his 25 year long association with Sandalwood this year. D Rajendra Babu who started off as an actor but later went ahead to become a full-fledged director after dabbling as an associate to directors like S V Rajendra Singh Babu and V Somashekhar is widely acclaimed for his gushy tales. But the director is now all set for an image change with his forthcoming flicks. Close at heels is the release of his much-awaited ‘Bindaas’ starring Puneet Rajkumar and Hansika Motwani. In this interview, we catch up with the nifty technician and know about his ride so far.

Excerpts from the Interview:

After being around in the industry for 25 years, how do you look back at your journey thus far?

I am grateful to God and my family especially my parents whose blessings made me what I am today. I’m glad that I could make it as a director. Within this span of 25 years, I had my share of joys and sorrows, frustration and fun, but I took them gladly at my stride.

Whatever little I have done as a director, today I can proudly claim that I’ve achieved fair amount of triumph in it. In course of my career, I had the privilege to work with nearly all the big names from the industry counting Dr Vishnuvardhan, Ambareesh, Anant Nag, Shankar Nag, Ravichandran, Shivaraj Kumar, Upendra, Sudeep and many others. And now I’m working with the talented brigade of young stars like Puneet Raj Kumar and Ganesh. What more could I ask for!

This industry also gave me my wife Sumithra and I’d be ever thankful to it for this gift. I agree it was not all rosy for me. But somehow I managed to cut through the adversities and reach here. I also managed to direct a Hindi film in the meantime with Govinda. I also had my fair share of awards and honors in the meantime. To sum up, it had been one great ride for me in Sandalwood.

Your next film ‘Bindaas’ sounds cool and chic. So going by the name it seems very much unlike your kind of sentimental flicks.

It won’t be fair to label my work as mere sentimental drama. I have dabbled successfully with other genres as well. For instance couple of my initial projects with Prabhakaran were out and out action flicks. Also I’ve explored other genres in films like Appaji, Praja Prabhuthwa and Entedhe Bhanta. Yes, my sentimental films like Haalunda Thavaru and Samsaara Nouke are all time favorites. Auto Shankar and Uppi Dada were again full-blown action drama.

And with Bindaas, I’m once again going back to action. It is fun to keep switching between genres.

Was it tricky working with the young lot? For instance, share with us your experience of working with powerstar Puneet Raj Kumar?

Absolutely not. Rather it was incredibly simple.

You see, even though I moved on to become an independent director while directing big stars like Vishnu and Ambareesh and even Shivaraj Kumar, the comfort level wasn’t that strong. I was always a bit shy of forwarding proposals to them.

But Puneet came across as a non-fussy star sans any airs. That made me feel far more relaxed. He made me feel young and refueled me with new vigor and passion. I was completely charged up during the making of Bindaas. Puneet brims with force and is very sincere towards his craft.

Tell us something about your film?

Bindaas is one out and out entertainer. Hansika Motwani, a Bollywood actress is the heroine in charge. Although Hansika has earlier acted in a couple of Tollywood and Bollywood films its Bindaas that will unleash her real talent to the core.

Janardhana Maharshi has penned down the script here. It is one fun film laced with action, emotion, fun and romance. Guru Kiran’s songs have already started creating a lot of hype for the film.

You are also working with Ganesh in your next. How was it working with him?

Ganesh have starred in nearly eight films so far. But it is with this film that he will make his impact felt the most. Ganesh is already a craze with young girls and kids and we are working on to give him a new image with this film that will make his fan fare increase twofold more.

It’s just been a couple of days since I’ve started shooting with Ganesh. He is one powerhouse of talent. Ramya is the actress here. Mano Murthy has given the songs for this film.

Now that you are back to doing acting films, what will happen to your sentimental image?

That image will be replaced by a brand new image. Watch out for it.