September 16, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Gopichand Malineni has come a long way from his life in the Ongole district where he grew up. The celebrated director has become famous for directing the recent Ravi Teja starrer 'Don Seenu'. The director said that he moved from the Ongole district and went to Giddalurivanipalem for his intermediaries and that is when he was exposed to Telugu films. The director often skipped class to watch movies and soon he developed a passion for watching movies.

Soon the budding director went on to assist in the Srihari starrer film 'Police'. Till now he has worked on four films with Srihari and many other notable film directors of the industry like Srinu Vytla, A.R. Murugadoss, Sri Vaas etc. working as an assistant to such well known directors have helped Gopichand understand the finer nuances of film direction.

Speaking about his blockbuster movie 'Don Seenu', Gopichand said that he conceived the film with Ravi Teja in his mind. Gopichand at first read the story to Prabhas who encouraged him to develop the story so that they could work on the project. That's how Gopichand first got inspired to direct a film on his own, later Prabhas could not work on the project and was replaced by Ravi Teja instead. It seems that all is well that ends well.

-- Sampurn Wire