{"id":563648,"date":"2025-11-01T15:04:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T09:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/?p=563648"},"modified":"2025-11-01T15:04:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T09:34:15","slug":"the-girlfriend-producers-dheeraj-mogilineni-and-vidya-koppineedi-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/the-girlfriend-producers-dheeraj-mogilineni-and-vidya-koppineedi-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Girlfriend\u201d Producers Dheeraj Mogilineni and Vidya Koppineedi Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Girlfriend\u201d is a film that everyone will be able to connect with, and we are confident about its success: Producers Dheeraj Mogilineni and Vidya Koppineedi<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

National crush Rashmika Mandanna and talented actor Dheekshith Shetty star together in this movie titled \u201cThe Girlfriend.\u201d The film is being jointly produced by Geetha Arts and Dheeraj Mogilineni Entertainment, presented by veteran producer Allu Aravind. Director Rahul Ravindran has crafted an intense, emotional love story, with Dheeraj Mogilineni and Vidya Koppineedi serving as producers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The movie, which is set to be a refreshing new-age love story, will have its grand theatrical release worldwide – in Hindi and Telugu on the 7th of this month, followed by Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada versions on the 14th. During a recent interview, producers Dheeraj Mogilineni and Vidya Koppineedi shared key highlights about the film.<\/span><\/p>\n

Producer Dheeraj Mogilineni<\/span> said:<\/span>
\nDuring the lockdown, theaters were closed. Once they reopened, we were in the process of developing this script. From the moment we took on the project, we planned to go for a theatrical release. As producers, we always wish for a film to have commercial appeal, but we loved this story so much that we were willing to take the risk, regardless of the outcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vidya and I share a great bond, and we never had any issues when it came to making production decisions. Love stories should be told from a particular point of view – in this case, it\u2019s from the heroine\u2019s perspective. That\u2019s why we couldn\u2019t cast big stars; we needed strong performers. Dheekshith is a wonderful performer. Just like Rashmika, he completely owned his character. Among the actors I know in this age group, I felt Dheekshith was perfect for this role – and once you see the movie, you\u2019ll feel the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are distributing \u201cThe Girlfriend\u201d ourselves because we believe it will work very well theatrically. We didn\u2019t cast Dheekshith thinking of the Kannada market advantage, but because he fit the role perfectly. However, with both Rashmika and Dheekshith, we\u2019ll naturally have an added advantage in Kannada.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many big Telugu films are now being released in Kannada as well. Smaller films are also trying this, but sometimes scheduling issues prevent that. Our plan is to release \u201cThe Girlfriend\u201d in Hindi and Telugu on the 7th, followed by Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam on the 14th. We\u2019re also planning an event in Mumbai.<\/span><\/p>\n

Director Rahul Ravindran\u2019s first film Chi La Sow worked really well for its budget and even won a National Award. His second film Manmadhudu 2 had different dynamics. We didn\u2019t look at his previous films – we were simply drawn to this story and decided to produce it. Rashmika didn\u2019t take any remuneration for this movie, and out of gratitude, we\u2019re giving her double the amount now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anu Emmanuel also plays an important role in the film. It\u2019s more than a guest appearance – the character suits her perfectly. Usually, before a movie\u2019s release, there\u2019s a bit of tension, but with \u201cThe Girlfriend,\u201d what we envisioned is exactly what we see on screen, so we\u2019re feeling calm and happy. The release date is perfect, and we\u2019re planning premieres a couple of days in advance, with dates to be announced soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

After COVID, audiences are returning to theaters only for strong content. We\u2019re choosing only those stories that truly work theatrically. We have excellent support from Geetha Arts and Allu Aravind garu, and we\u2019ve learned a lot from him. After this film\u2019s release, we\u2019ll be announcing a new project.<\/span><\/p>\n

Producer Vidya Koppineedi <\/span>said:<\/span>
\nWhen we first heard the story of \u201cThe Girlfriend,\u201d we immediately connected with it. It\u2019s not a regular commercial story. Every viewer will take away a message after watching it. Even though it\u2019s not in the typical commercial format, Dheeraj and I decided to take the risk because we both genuinely loved the story. The censor board members even praised the director, saying it\u2019s the kind of film that could win a National Award.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since both of us are producers, we shared all production-related responsibilities equally. Every decision was taken collectively after discussion. Even when selecting stories, we make decisions together. We always have Allu Aravind garu\u2019s strong support behind every project.<\/span><\/p>\n

Love stories are always pleasant to watch, and both youth and family audiences enjoy them. We are interested in doing love stories that feel fresh and emotionally strong. We didn\u2019t deliberately choose it because it\u2019s women-centric – the story naturally took that form. Though inspired by some real-life incidents, most of the script is original.<\/span><\/p>\n

We shot most of the film on a college campus. Colleges usually don\u2019t allow filming during working days, and at that time, Rashmika was working on two or three big projects in different cities. Because of that, there were a few date-related delays, but otherwise, the shoot went smoothly. Towards the end, there was a workers\u2019 strike, but since the film was already in its final stage, it didn\u2019t affect us much.<\/span><\/p>\n

We decided on Hesham Abdul Wahab as the music director right at the beginning, and he\u2019s delivered excellent music for the film. There are four full songs and two bit songs. This isn\u2019t a women-centric movie – it\u2019s a love story set against a college backdrop. Audiences will definitely relate to it, as it will remind them of their own or their friends\u2019 love stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

We never planned to make this film with Samantha. From the beginning, we had Rashmika in mind for this script. She personally loved the story, so there were no discussions or changes needed from her side. In today\u2019s times, we take up projects only after careful thought, and that\u2019s also the kind of advice Allu Aravind garu always gives us.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Girlfriend\u201d is a film that everyone will be able to connect with, and we are confident about its success: Producers Dheeraj Mogilineni and Vidya Koppineedi National crush Rashmika Mandanna and talented actor Dheekshith Shetty star together in this movie titled \u201cThe Girlfriend.\u201d The film is being jointly produced by Geetha Arts and Dheeraj Mogilineni […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":563649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11,17],"tags":[53969,430,7444,64344,3602],"yst_prominent_words":[17330,8910,10531,10656,10861,28895,9205],"class_list":["post-563648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-interviews","category-news","category-slideshow","tag-producers-interviews","tag-rashmika-mandanna","tag-telugu-cinema","tag-the-girlfriend","tag-tollywood"],"read":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":563650,"href":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563648\/revisions\/563650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563648"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/industryhit.com\/t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=563648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}