The meeting with Nagarjuna happens soon after his return from a holiday in Maldives. It has been a breather before the promotional rigmarole for his bilingual, titled Oopiri in Telugu and Thozha in Tamil, releasing on March 25.
He searches for the right words to describe what this Indian retelling of Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano’s The Intouchables means to him. “Some films change your life a little. This is one of them. It will help me take up new kinds of roles and pave way for new structures of storytelling in Telugu cinema,” he pauses and continues, “The film made me think about my mother and what she’s done for me; it made me recall the good times I’ve had with friends.”
The French film starring François Cluzet and Omar Sy, inspired by a true story, is a heart-warming narrative about a quadriplegic billionaire and his caretaker, a former small-time crook. Nag watched The Intouchables three years ago and was moved to tears, of joy. He told his wife Amala that he wished someone would make such a film in Telugu. “What do they say about the universe conspiring to make things happen when you really want something? That’s what has happened. Three years later, director Vamshi Paidipally wanted to remake The Intouchables ,” he says.
NTR was initially approached to do the crucial caretaker’s role. “Vamshi was hesitant to approach me. Tarak got in touch and asked me to listen to the story and then react; he told me not to get angry. I wondered what was brewing. Then they sent me a DVD of The Intouchables ,” Nag recalls with a hearty laugh.
The script that came to him was a commercialised version, with a flashback thrown in. “I said I wouldn’t do it. I didn’t see the need for a flashback with song and dance. I told them to retain the positivity and the bonhomie of the original, but not get my character off the wheelchair. Vamshi was pleased and said this is what he wanted to hear. He was worried if I’d decline the film if I had to be wheelchair bound all along,” he says. In the next two months, the script was reworked.
A dialogue in the trailer refers to the romantic tag that’s still associated with the 56-year-old actor. Karthi tells Nagarjuna “meeru okapudu chaala romantic anukunta” (you must have been romantic at one time) to which Nag quips “okapudu enti”? Ippudu kuda (why then? Even today). The romantic hero label emerged with the blockbuster hits in his prime — Mani Ratnam’s Geetanjali , Mahesh Bhatt’s Criminal and Krishna Vamsi’s Ninne Pelladutha . Every now and then one hears his sons Akhil and Chaitanya remark how their father is considered more of a romantic hero than them. “They make fun of me all the time,” laughs Nag. “I didn’t consciously work towards that image. But for my previous film we completely played on that image.”
Soggade Chinni Nayana saw him essay dual roles — father and son, with the father returning as a ghost to teach his son lessons in romance. The film was a money spinner, earning over Rs 50 crore. Nagarjuna notes the change in box office dynamics. “ Shiva ran for one year in one theatre. Back then, the yardstick of a blockbuster was ‘100 centres, 100 days’. Now films don’t run beyond three weeks so people talk about collections. What made me happy was Soggade… crossed 50 days in some centres,” he explains.
His three decade career is marked with hits and misses. A film like Oopiri , in trade terms, is not considered ideal for B and C centres. “The films I’ve done with all my heart have gone on to become huge hits. When I set out to do a ‘mass masala’ intending to please B and C centres, it bombs,” he says.
He’s confident of the prospects of Oopiri and Thozha , given the feel-good factor. Nagarjuna recalls an elderly woman in Paris telling him how much she loved The Intouchables . “She has a physically disabled son, who was inspired by the positive outlook of the film. It’s such an iconic film that we were allowed to shoot for free in some locations in Paris,” he says. Meanwhile, in Hyderabad, there are requests for special screenings of Oopiri for the physically impaired.
Playing a quadriplegic was tougher than Nagarjuna thought, “It’s depressing to think what it would mean to be impaired down the neck.” As an actor, he says it wasn’t easy: “I couldn’t use any gestures apart from speech and facial expressions. For a few scenes, they tied my hands beneath my jacket so that, involuntarily, I wouldn’t move my limbs. I felt like a Bharatanatyam dancer, having to emote with my eyes. This whole exercise made me a better actor,” he laughs.
Filming the Tamil version, he says, took a tad longer since he wasn’t fluent enough in the language. He talks fondly of his co-star Karthi, a well known name in Tamil cinema. “He’s one of the finest actors I’ve worked with. Jayasudha (who plays Karthi’s mother) and I would sit and watch him act. At times, he would get so involved that he would take my feet, place it on his shoulder and massage the way he would in the film. That doesn’t come unless you’re completely involved.”
A few years ago, Nagarjuna talked about consciously moving away from the routine, taking up mature roles like Amitabh Bachchan. For his next, Nagarjuna has teamed up with director Raghavendra Rao, with whom he did the memorable Annamayya . The film is a biopic on the 18th century devotee, Hathiram Baba. Nag feels he’s on track. “I’ve been going that way. I wouldn’t call my roles in Manam and Soggade conventional. In fact, Vamshi and PVP (production house) told me I was their only hope of Oopiri . Had I refused, they wouldn’t have made the film,” he signs off.
