HELLO!: Congratulations for winning ‘Producer of the Year’! How elated are you?
Swapna Dutt: “It’s pretty cool! I spent a lot of my younger days glancing through the pages of HELLO!. So to be a part of it now is a privilege. I’ve put in a lot of hard work, so I feel like it’s now paying off.”
H!: Sita Ramam, Mahanati and Yevade Subramanyam… How does it feel to be associated with such highly successful movies?
SD: “Back in the day, I’d probably allow myself to be affected by successes and failures, but now, not so much. Though there’s a lot more responsibility and much more pressure!”
H!: What is it like working with and learning from your father, Chalasani Aswani Dutt?
SD: “There’s so much to learn from him every single day. Of course, there are good days, difficult days, easy days… But I’m so grateful for it all at the end of the day.”
H!: Your thoughts on the constant comparison between southern films and Hindi movies.
SD: “First, it has to be called Indian cinema. When I was doing this show with Kamal (Haasan) sir, he had told me that the sun rises at some corner very well at some point of time — and that’s where it is, right now. I’m extremely proud that things are going the way they are. I’m proud of all that we’re doing right now. But at the end of the day, the ecosystem has to be of ‘Indian cinema’. All of us can do so much better together.”
H!: The spotlight now seems to be on talent from South India. Your comments, please.
SD: “It’s all well-deserved, don’t you think? We’ve been underdogs for a while and are finally getting our share of the limelight.”
This has been adapted for the web from a story originally published in the February 2023 issue of HELLO! India. Get our copy of the latest issue right here!
