“Gedela Raju” is something special to me. I believe all movie lovers will like “Gedela Raju” – actor and music director Raghu Kunche.

The film “Gedela Raju,” in which Raghu Kunche plays the title role, comes with the tagline “Kakinada Taluka Cinema.” Along with Raghu Kunche, the film stars Ramachandram Punyamurtula, Vikas, Tina Shwavy, Mounika, Ravi Chinnibilli, and others. The teaser, trailer, and songs of the film have already been released and received a good response. Presented by Raghu Kunche under the banner of Moturi Talkies, the film is directed by Chaitanya Moturi and produced by Vani Ravikumar Moturi. The movie is set for a grand theatrical release on the 24th of this month. 

In a recent interview, actor and music director Raghu Kunche shared the highlights of the film.

I have previously worked as both an actor and music director for several films. But “Gedela Raju” feels something special to me. Since I played a character that runs throughout the film, I developed a strong command over it, which helped a lot while composing the music. The background score (BGM) in our movie is very natural. These days, in many films, background music tends to dominate the characters. But if you observe older films like “Shiva” and “Geethanjali,” the BGM used to enhance the character subtly, like cream over milk. Now BGM often feels like just noise. I was careful about this in our film—I made sure the BGM never dominates the character and remains settled. The songs are situational and help move the story forward. Out of the three songs, I sang one, Babekka sang another, and Mangadevi sang the third. I was given 45 days for the BGM. Harish handled the sound design for our movie. He is the assistant to Rajarathnam, who worked on sound design for films like “KGF” and “Kalki,”. Watching it in Dolby will give a great audio experience.

My character in the film needed to look intimidating, so I gained 12 kg for it. Mythri Sasi said after watching the film that he thought I would be soft based on my earlier television appearances, but I was quite frightening in this role. Everyone who watched the film said my character has strong mass appeal. Initially, we planned to release the movie on the 17th, but theaters weren’t confirmed. At that time, Madhura Sridhar Reddy suggested postponing to the next week. We reconsidered, and eventually everything fell into place. In the Nizam region, Mythri group is releasing the film in over 100 theaters. Overall, it’s releasing in about 200 screens across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and in 60 overseas locations. This is a huge release for a small film.

This film has strong content, though the makers didn’t have big financial backing. Director Chaitanya worked very hard, overseeing every department. They struggled for a year. Seeing their passion, I became part of the production as well. I usually give 100% effort to every film, but I felt this one needed even more from me, so I came on board as a presenter.

My character speaks in the Godavari district dialect. Since I am from that region, it was easier for me to perform. After gaining weight and preparing physically, I completely immersed myself in the role. Previously, I played a character with a Telangana dialect, which was difficult for me since I wasn’t used to it. This film was shot in real locations. In fish market scenes, real people continued their daily work and appeared naturally in the film. The interval fight will be a major highlight. We had to use real knives because prop knives weren’t available, which was quite scary. In one scene, we had to stay overnight in the fish market. It made me realize that acting isn’t always about comfort—there are challenging moments too.

The way the director designed the character of Gedela Raju made even me feel angry enough to want to kill him. I’m curious to see how audiences react after watching the film. Everyone who has seen it has praised my performance both as an actor and a music director, though I’d take slightly more credit as an actor. Regular moviegoers sometimes change the fate of films. I am confident that movie lovers will definitely like our film.

I’m not limiting myself to villain roles. I choose based on the offers I receive. I am currently working on a film titled payanam, another movie by Kalyan Chakravarthy, the writer of “Akhanda 2,” and also playing a good role in a film starring Allari Naresh.