An angry NRI penned a letter to filmmaker ‘Praveen Sattaru’ for his derogatory comments on the Telugu diaspora. Here is the open letter written by the NRI T.Navin Reddy (Philadelphia) after he was distressed watching filmmaker reckless call NRI’s notorious

In a what could be termed as verbal diarrhea, a less known director Mr. Praveen Sattaru degraded Telugu NRI community with his cheap comments. Offended by his loose talk, pitying his poor or lack of understanding about current diaspora, I’m writing this open letter to that vile director.

For those who did not watch the video yet, here is the detailed information without any word twisting nor exaggeration. On a YouTube channel, the host conducted a roundtable debate with four directors. At some point of the debate, the topic put forth for discussion was “The impact of Reviews on the outcome of Telugu films “. ‘Arjun Reddy’ fame Mr. Sandeep Reddy, ‘Pataas’ fame Mr. Anil Ravipudi and the classy director Mr. Indraganti Mohan Krishna participated in discussion panel along with this little-known ‘Praveen Sattaru’. Except for Mr. Sattaru, the three directors expressed that film reviews have relatively greater impact on overseas market. Followed by which Mr. Sattaru picked up the debate and started commenting on NRIs cheaply. The topic was about impact of reviews, and there was downright no need to foul mouth NRIs. But Mr. Sattaru said, “People in USA are notorious. They’re very notorious, they would rather order a $5 pizza on Friday evening and download it and watch in TV, invite all the friends rather than going to a theater to watch a film”.

I was amused with Mr. Sattaru’s irresponsible comments and lack of knowledge. Present day Telugu diaspora families are spending hundreds of dollars on Telugu movies alone, evident from the fact that telugu films are generating more revenues than Hindi films and way higher revenue than tamil films. If Telugu NRI patronage in USA are watching piracy, as alleged by Sattaru, I’ m wondering from where all the revenues are being generated. He also alleged NRIs watch stars’ movies only in theatres, a lot it is fact that NRIs do not want to miss star movies, the money is coming from the Telugu diaspora who are thronging to theatres because of which Baahubali had earned Rs. 130 Crores, Chiranjeevi’s recent film earned Rs.18 crores and Pawan Mahesh NTR like top stars’ films are generating more than Rs.13-15 crores collections.

But, at the same time it was NRI segment who are encouraging movies small budget films like Pelli Choopulu, Fidaa, Arjun Reddy like no star films. These small films were much bigger hits in USA than in India. Did Mr. Sattaru expect his sleazy films like ‘Guntur Talkies’ to fare well in USA? Sorry dude, we’re not for your Z-Grade stuff. Mr. Sattaru’s recent film ‘PSV Garuda Vega ‘, it has bankrupted hero Rajasekhar’s family. It reportedly collected disastrous Rs. 5 crores in telugu states combined. But, this unsuccessful director should know that his ‘PSV GarudaVega’ was a big hit in USA with more than half million-dollar collection.

Mr. Sattaru might have led the life of watching movies for piracy along with $5 pizza considering the fact that he was in the USA few year ago. Furthermore, he also opined “Perception is that since they have gone from India to US, their sensibilities are more. That is not the case. Sensibilities are not dependent on the place we live. NRIs are worse. Why would they do car rallies in the US, they are worse. The situation is like that”. How can Mr. Sattaru generalize that NRI’s lack sensibility based on the minuscule people who participate in car rallies. Some of the Americans patronize cinema heroes or politicians too, it is individual’s choice. Ironically, a director who made cheap stuff like ‘Guntur Talkies’ has audacity to talk on class and sensibility. Instead of making senseless comments, he should have stuck to the topic of reviews. Mr. Sattaru is entitle to express his opinion on those self-proclaimed reviewers in a mannered way, but he certainly cannot hurt the sentiments of NRIs based on whatever he experienced.

Mr. Sattaru has only one meaningful, critically acclaimed film ‘Chandamama Kathalu’ under his name. Before mudslinging on NRIs Mr. Sattaru should self-introspect why he was so unsuccessful as director. His type of directors live in denial mode that they’re intellectual section , compared to their peers but end up delivering duds. All his films bombed at box-office and ascertained that he is incompetent to be a filmmaker. Rather than bankrupting your producers with your incompetency, Mr. Sattaru please come back to USA to resume your IT job. If any of your films earned well in India but bombed in USA, your grudge on NRIs is understandable. Ironically it is not the case, in your little disastrous career, USA audience appreciated one additional film ‘PSV Garuda Vega’.

Instead of being indebt to NRIs, Mr. Sattaru has nerve to passive judgement on the life of NRIs. This ineffective director has to apologize to NRIs unconditionally.

Regards,
Navin Reddy T (Philadelphia)
[email protected]