Producer Dil Raju: Thank You is a story of a man's journey from a zero to a hero, Naga Chaitanya has done a splendid job

Writer BVS Ravi narrated the script of Thank You to producer Dil Raju almost four years ago. The idea of a story where a successful man acknowledges the contribution of all the people who helped him achieve that position appealed to him instantly. There were two-three names under consideration to direct it - Manam filmmaker Vikram K Kumar being one of them. The star producer gave the film's gist to the director before the preview of his action-comedy Gang Leader.

"Vikram gave a nod to the idea and agreed to come on board. We thought none better than Naga Chaitanya would fit better in the director's universe. Despite having to undergo immense transformation to get the three different looks in the film, Chaitanya had no second thoughts about it. Manam, their previous collaboration, was a great effort. It's a very difficult story to tell but he did it with a lot of simplicity," Dil Raju said in a media interaction on Monday.

While the producer admits that Manam, 13B, and Ishq were major hits in director Vikram's career, Dil Raju made him aware of what may have gone wrong in the case of Hello and Gang Leader. "I told him that he must be ready to try things differently and learn. He wasn't comfortable with the idea initially but found his groove eventually. We did a lot of homework for the film. I must say Vikram has achieved 90% of what we expected from him."

Though the team liked the story, Dil Raju doesn't deny that there was a reasonable amount of struggle in making Naga Chaitanya's character in the film more relatable. "The film revolves around the journey of a character from zero to hero. Naga Chaitanya will blow everyone away with his performance. Cinematographer PC Sreeram trusted us completely and was very happy with the film during post-production and DI work."

Dil Raju has heard several comments about the film's similarities to Premam and Autograph. "The only similarity is how he has three love interests in the different phases of his life. Premam was a love story, this is a life story. Thank You is a beautiful romance with a lot of commercial appeal. The film comes at a time when no one has time to look back at their past. We haven't hidden the story anywhere during our promotions." 

The producer too believes his success today is a product of a lot of good that people have voluntarily and involuntarily done to him at the various stages of his life. He particularly feels the success of Pelli Pandiri gave a strong foundation to my career. "What if I go back to many such people, meet and thank them for their efforts? How will they react to it? Thank You is all about that."

He hasn't gone through a particularly rosy phase this year, be it the moderate response to Rowdy Boys, F3 besides Hindi films like Jersey and Hit: The First Case. "Jersey went through many problems and delays through its making; at a point, we were even looking at a Rs 30 crore profit. However, by the time of release, despite its failure, we scraped through with minimal damage and a 3-4 crore loss. We knew Hit wouldn't open big either but believed it'll grow through word of mouth."