It is very difficult for a character artiste to hold his own amid an ensemble cast. Unless he comes out with a natural and outstanding performance, he cannot be noticed as his dialogues and the space allotted to him are small. Rao Ramesh made the most of the opportunities given to him over 12 years, and when finally he got the right role in Mukunda, he made sure he gave it his best.
There had been sparks of brilliance in a few projects, but most of them went unnoticed as the films sank at the box office, like his role as Adusumilli Durga Prasad in Rowdy Fellow .
Right from the moment the morning show of Mukunda wound up, Rao Ramesh has been deluged by phone calls complimenting his work. A picture of relief and humility, he gives all the credit to Srikant Addala with whom he worked thrice — in Kottha Bangaru Lokam, Seetamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu and now this film. Addala is known to not give his actors a script or shot division in advance. He just sits in front of the monitor and watches the scene unfold. He keeps observing the background and adding people; he makes the artiste enact different versions of the dialogue and could finally say the first one was the best.
Rao Ramesh says about Addala, “ Aayana samskaram film lo kanipisthundi (His culture can be seen in the film) . He treats every person — be it a light boy, Prakash Raj or Rao Ramesh — on the same level. He is a very courageous person; he smiles, doesn’t scream but extracts what he wants with patience. He gives me lot more freedom now. Earlier he would show us how to act too but now his focus is only on dialogue. He neither favours too much drama nor does he want us to be too genuine. There are no rehearsals; he just gives me two minutes to prepare for the shot. I record whatever he says.”
The actor adds with Srikant Addala, there is always some suspense, some kind of excitement before coming to the set, a slight doubt whether he can pull it off or not. But halfway through the film, his confidence levels rose and as the director started enjoying his work, Rao Ramesh took over. He recollects, “In SVSC , there were stars, dividing space between two heroes is difficult plus it was a huge cast. But here the situation was favourable to me. All Srikant told me was that youth take elders as an inspiration to achieve their goals but when even intelligent and educated seniors behave in a condescending manner, whom are they supposed to turn to?”
Talking about being directed by Addala, Ramesh says, “It is not easy working with him, Rajamouli deggara cheste yemukalu irugutayi, Srikant deggara chestey naralu tegguthayi (if you work with Rajamouli, your bones will break; if you work with Srikant your nerves will break) . He sees some character in some restaurant or bus stand and he wants that feel and expression, there will be no reference... we have to grasp and give it. He never screams but is plain sarcastic. If we don’t give what he wants he says Yentandi vere shoot nundi vocchara, vere laga undi acting ( what sir, have you come from another shooting, your acting looks different ) and I ask him if there was a deviation.” He adds, “I used padding to look obese and got back pain.”
Addala’s dialogues are for the thinking man and the actor confesses that he took time to grasp it. If Rao Ramesh is walking away with all the honours it is because of the fabulous dialogues. “It is different, has depth and intelligence. SVSC dialogues were laced with sarcasm. Here it is a bit straight. He didn’t want a dialect. Look at the sentence construction, can anyone write like this? ‘ Vadi ushnograthenti, vadi ushnam enti, vadi seethoshana sthithenti, vadu samudra mattaniki yentha ethhunadu, vadi meeda surya kiranaalu niluvaga padthunnaya etavaaluga padthunnaya... telusukovali kadayya.’ Another one: ‘ Mahanubhauvulu tecchina svatantram oorike vodhilesthama... paavala petti kontaanu okkokadini… nuncho petti kontaanu.’ There are more gems like this.”
