Nannaku Prematho an heart-touching story: NTR

Monday, January 11, 2016 - 20:15

As Nannaku Prematho is getting ready for release, NTR talks to the web media and reveals a lot about his career in general and the movie in particular.

The film received censor certificate just now. You were working till the other day. Why such mad rush to make it for January 13th ?

We didn't want to miss the Sankranthi season. We were working day and night without much rest to finish the film and make it ready for 13th January as we had announced earlier. It is not about competing with others or anything like that but to take the advantage of the festival season. We have very limited holidays seasons - Sankranthi, Summer and Dussera. That was reason we pushed ourselves to complete the movie.

But this is turning out to be crowded Sankranthi!.

I don't know why all of you guys are making it a new trend. My Adhurs was in competition with Sambo Siva Sambo and Namo Venkatesha when it released during 2010 Sankranthi and all of them were hits. It is one season that can accommodate three or four films at a time. I am sure this time too Tollywood will witness all four films being successful at the box-office.  

Although this is your 25th movie, you told your fans not to come to the theatres expecting it to be a special movie. What was the reason?

Because we didn't it plan it as 25th movie. The reason why I did this film was to act under Sukumar's direction. So I did the movie without deviating from the script. What we intended to tell, we did. That is what is told in the trailer. Audiences don't like to get cheated. So we are honest in trailers and in our talk. The film is a simple story. Narration is unique. It is more of an emotional ride.

What is one thing that you liked in Sukumar?

He is committed person, he breathes movies. It is very tough shooting on foreign locations as there are too many restrictions. So we all have to be on 7.30 am on the sets and continue till 9 pm. But Sukumar would come to the sets by 4.30 am and start writing again and discuss with his assistants. He hardly had sleep during the shoot but he never complained. And he constantly excites you on the sets with his ideas.

One more thing is that some of his films might not have worked but none of his movies were bad. You respect his movies.

But people complain that his films have heroes with some madness.

I play a very clear-headed guy. There is no such element to the my characterization. You will see a simple story. There are mind games that I play in the film but the narration is simple and straight forward.

Your body language and histrionics are said to be quite different in this film?

Entire credit goes to Sukumar. I have changed the way I speak too for this film. You will find voice a little bit different. I have over-expressive face. But Sukumar told me to restraint my expressions. He even controlled my eye blink. He made the movie with such minute details. He has not only changed my appearance but also the way I act.

Your fans expect you to do movies with more mass elements. But you are deviating from that genre!

I don't believe in this classification of mass and class. And also everyone should evolve and go with the changing tastes of audiences. We have to gauge with the movies that are releasing, that are hitting the chord with the audiences and change ourselves. If fans want only mass movies from me, all my movies should have become hits. But why did they flop. We have to change.

Will you be doing different kind of movies from now onwards?

Yes, not just me all heroes are moving towards this way. Today only content based movies are working at the box-office. The success of Baahubali, Srimanthudu and Bhale Bhale Magadivoy proved this. Last year Tollywood tasted hits that are different or rich with the story and visuals. For me, Temper was such film, I got my oxygen with that film.

So content-driven movies are rule of the game today?

In fact, Tollywood was known to make movies with rich stories but somehow we have drifted away from that. My grandfather NTR had acted in movies like Kalisi Unte Kaladu Sukham, wherein he was shown as guy afflicted with part paralysis. Chiranjeevi garu did message-oriented movies too. His Rudraveena was great movie. Nagarjuna garu did many such movies -  "Geetanjali", "Shiva", "Annamayya" and "Sri Ramadasu."

Thankfully we are back to our roots now. Baahubali is the film that changed the rule of the game.

When will Janata Garage begin?

From February 10th, regular shoot would commence. I will be joining the team a little later.

Which look would be maintaining?

We are yet to finalize how my appearance should be in the film.

What are other movies you have signed?

I will be doing a movie for NTR Arts. Annayya Kalyan Ram will announce further details.