Rudramadevi talks about women empowerment: Allu Arjun

Allu Arjun is excited about Gunasekhar's new movie Rudramadevi that is set for release on October 9th. He has essayed the warrior role of Gona Ganna Reddy in the movie that has Anushka in the titular character.

For Allu Arjun, working under Gunasekhar is not the first time as he did Varudu with him that met with bad results at box-office. Despite their first combination failing, Allu Arjun still respects the director for his vision and his command over the craft of the film and we already know that he volunteered to do this role in Rudramadevi.

"When I heard that he is looking for right stars to play this role and finding tough to finalize, I approached him and expressed my intention to support as he is risking all his money to tell a story that has rich history of our Telugu culture. One should not evaluate every movie with money, I wanted to support him, so I did," he said, speaking to the reporters on the eve of the movie's release.

How tough was it to play this character which doesn't have many references in the popular culture. "True, we didn't find any paintings about Gona Ganna Reddy except references about him in the history books. Though he was much older than me at the time he participated in the battle ground, we took cinematic liberties and also decided to tweak the accent of Telangana Telugu language that he spoke to reach out to wider audiences. That was the tough part of the movie - getting right accent," he went on narrating the challenges he faced about the film.

There is some criticism coming from historians about Allu Arjun's hairstyle as in that period, warriors kept their hair long unlike Allu Arjun who played the role with short hair. "Yes, this criticism reached to us but we explained the reason in the film that he rebelled against the norms of his times."

Allu Arjun is confident that his characterization will be remembered by film lovers as we are now remembering the roles of Lord Sri Krishna, Alluri Seetaramaraju and Tandra Paparayudu played by Late NTR, Krishna and Krishnam Raju.

Every Indian should see this movie, says Allu Arjun as he feels this is not pertaining only Telugu region. "It is the story of women empowerment. Why shouldn't women rule and govern? In the male dominated era, Rudramadevi stood strong and proved that she could govern even better as her kingdom encompassed many parts of Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra too apart from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. She ruled from Warangal," he added. 

Talking about the healthy success rate that Tollywood is witnessing, he said this is the best season that our Industry has ever seen. Baahubali, Srimanthudu, Cinema Choopista Maava, Bhale Bhale Magadivoy and Subramanyam For Sale have succeeded in a very short span of time, he added.

He also believes that this is time to make new-age movies from Tollywood.

- by L Venu Gopal