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Mr Nice-Guy - Venkat Prabhu
Bhanu Mathi Mohan
There was a time in Venkat Prabhu’s career when things looked bleak and he seemed to be walking a very stony path. It wasn’t so long ago that he and his family went through some very bad times financially and he felt that nothing was stable.
“When I returned home to India after eight years in the UK I decided to star in my father’s film Pooncholai. Unfortunately, that film did not even release and I began to sense that others were loosing faith in me and that I was beginning to be considered unlucky,” he recalls.
“It wasn’t until after I got married that I started to take my responsibilities seriously. I even started a band and played at weddings and functions to make ends meet and tried to launch a film magazine, which again did not take off.
“My father started a television company which was a flop and we actually lost our houses,” he reveals. “I came to know a lot about life and all it’s ups and downs. I worked on all sorts of projects and took acting roles as second-lead and even worked in Tamil TV serials.
“I tried all kinds of things and for me the turning point was a video project that I did for a company in Singapore. This got the notice of some people and when I asked SP Charan to produce and Yuvan Shankar Raja to do the music for what was to become Chennai 28, they immediately supported me.”
Since then, Venkat Prabhu has earned a name for himself as a cutting-edge film maker who has his finger on the pulse of ‘Generation Next’ with hit films such as Goa and Saroja.
“When I was at school I really wanted to become a singer and then later, I guess because of my strong interest in films, I decided to try to become a film maker,” he reflects. “I even looked into studying at the British Film Institute but it was way too expensive and after lengthy discussions with my father, I realised that direction is not necessarily something you needed to be formally trained in.
“A lot of people don’t realise this about the film-world but if you can manage your people and your budgets carefully, you have won half the battle. Thankfully, people always had the confidence in me even when I wasn’t too sure of myself. People have always believed in me.” …. That’s probably because you seem like such a nice guy I thought to myself and isn’t it great when one meets an exception to the rule that nice-guys always finish last.
Source: Indian Express (Dated: 17-7-2010)