Addressing the media on the eve of the release of his big film Bengal Tiger, director Sampath Nandi turned nostalgic. Everyone had one question to ask him, why he left Sardar Gabbar Singh and he looked ready with the answer. He said, “I don’t get overawed by success or failure because I have already seen how the people from the industry change their attitude. When you are successful, many come close to you. And when you are not doing anything, those people distance themselves.” He worked with Sakshi editor Priyadarshini Ram as a dialogue writer for Toss and also for Kannada superstar Upendra. Upendra had asked him to direct a film.“I went to Bangalore with him and the film was almost 95 per cent complete. It was a Telugu and Kannada bilingual. But the film got shelved. I sat in a room with a TV and a fan for nearly two years in Bangalore. Everyone would leave and I would be the only person who sat in his office alone. My in-laws came to know that my film was not releasing and they worried a lot. I struggled a lot for nearly two years until my first film Yemaindi Ee Vela released,” he says. After that we all know how Raccha happened and it became a box office success.
