“We have gone to six cities in a week and another 10 have to be covered over the next two weeks. I don’t know how I am going to make it,” Nishan Nanaiah says with a chuckle over the phone. The back-breaking trips are for promoting his new Hindi movie, Badlapur Boys , slated to be released on November 7.
“In the Hindi industry, when you sign up for a movie, along with shooting dates, you also have to give dates for promotions,” he adds.
Badlapur Boys is a remake of Susindran’s hit Tamil flick Vennila Kabaddi Kuzhu , which tells the story of a group of kabaddi players in rural Tamil Nadu, who have never won a game but triumph in the end under the guidance of an astute coach. However, the Hindi version has been tweaked to a great extent even as kabaddi remains the core factor.
Nishan says. “My character, Vijay has to tackle certain personal issues and has a goal that he dreams to attain through kabaddi,” he says. The movie, shot in Mammana village near Jaipur, is directed by debutant Shailendra Varma, who wrote Salman Khan’s Veer and has done television shows as well.
Badlapur Boys is Nishan’s third Hindi film after Cycle Kick , directed by Subhash Ghai, which “came and went unnoticed” and David .
According to him, there couldn’t have been a better time for Badlapur Boys to be released, since the game of kabaddi has touched new heights, thanks to the recently concluded Pro Kabaddi League and India’s golden run at the Asian Games. “The best part about the movie is that what you see on screen is the real game. Except for a handful of actors, the rest of the players you see in the film are actual kabaddi players. When you do a sports film, you have to look authentic on screen. Our director was very particular about this and all of us practised hard before shooting the game sequences. I enjoyed sweating it out, having played the sportsperson in real and reel lives. I was a state-level tennis player before entering films. I acted as a football player in Cycle Kick and now in Badlapur Boys , I am playing kabaddi,” he says.
With just days left for the release of the movie, he can’t hide his nervousness. He is worried about how the audience would accept a sports movie with many new faces. “If a movie with newcomers becomes a hit, many similar movies are made and released. But the moment one such movie flops, a dozen other films with newcomers that are in various production stages get shelved. It is a huge risk but we have done our best,” he says.
Meanwhile, he is doing another Hindi movie, Chai Shai Biscuit , a satire on arranged marriages, directed by debutant Himanshu Bhatnagar. An untitled Malayalam movie is also in the pipeline.
Before signing off, this alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India admits that he is not happy with the way his career is shaping up in Malayalam cinema. “I am doing my best, but I am not flooded with roles. Perhaps, being a non-Malayali (he hails from Coorg, Karnataka) is a problem. As far as I know, I have never been the first choice for many of the roles I did. Nevertheless, I hope things will change. After all, I have worked with some of the best directors, a bonanza I never expected,” he says.
Badlapur Boys has Saranya Mohan, Pooja Gupta and Annu Kapoor in the cast.
