Mumbai, Sep 15 (IANS) D. Ramanaidu, who has produced over 130 films in 12 languages, is quite thrilled at having won the Dadasaheb Phalke award, the highest honour in Indian cinema. But he says there are no fullstops in his career and that he is right now producing a Punjabi movie.
“I’m the first Telugu filmmaker to win the Dadasaheb (Phalke award) in 20 years. So when I heard about it, I was naturally elated. But there are no fullstops in my career. I’ve produced over 130 films in 12 languages. Now I’m producing a film in Punjabi for the first time,” said the 75-year-old doyen of Telugu cinema

Ramanaidu, who started producing films in 1963, is realistic enough to see how much the film market has slumped. He admits he hasn’t produced a film in Hindi for quite a while because of the slump.

“Earlier I used to remake my Telugu hits into Hindi. But none of my Telugu films have done well recently. I’ve recently been busy producing Gujarati and Bhojpuri films. But now I will definitely produce another Hindi film very soon,” he said.

Ramanaidu says he keeps up with changing trends in world cinema through his children.

“My son and now my grandsons have joined me. We are a family completely consumed by cinema. We virtually live for cinema. I’ve been witness to many changing trends in movie-making. Our production house keeps abreast of these changes.”

This diehard filmmaker has no plans to quit filmmaking. “I’ll never retire. If I don’t make movies, I wouldn’t know what to do,” he said.