The happiness was palpable when Nagarjuna took to twitter a couple of days ago to post photographs from Chaitanya and Samantha’s engagement. You sense the lingering cheer when the actor settles down for a conversation at Annapurna Seven Acres studio. “I am happy for both of them. It’s a beautiful feeling when you fall in love and get married. I am happy both Chaitanya and Akhil chose their life partners,” Nagarjuna tells us.
Was he aware of Chaitanya and Samantha’s blossoming romance when he shot with them for Manam ? “I didn’t know. My portions with Chaitanya and Samantha were shot separately. They shot together for a longer time in my father’s presence and I’m sure they must have behaved themselves (laughs).”
The promotions for his forthcoming film Om Nama Venkatesaya , directed by K. Raghavendra Rao, are in full swing and Nagarjuna is happy with the way things are moving at work and home. “I am enjoying this phase. I am out of the number game and not bothered about opening weekend collections. I get to enjoy making and being part of good films,” he says.
Part history, part fiction
On Namo … will narrate the story of Hathiram Bhava and is set in the 16th century. There’s limited material in public domain about this saint who found his calling in Tirumala and stayed on in the temple town. The film’s writer J.K. Bharavi, says Nagarjuna, travelled to the different maths of Hathiram Bhava to learn more about the saint. “Bharavi heard different stories; most of them have been narrated orally over generations. What little we know about him is from a plaque in Tirupati near his samadhi . The film is a dramatised version of his story and we will have a note stating that it’s partly fictional,” he says.
The character played by Anushka, he points out, is fictional, “We don’t have a reference to a character like hers in Bhava’s life. Anushka’s character is inspired by Goda Devi (Andal). Anushka has played it beautifully. In this film, when the Bhava comes to Tirumala and feels lost in a new place, she provides shelter and shows him his path.” History has different versions of where Hathiram Bhava came from. “We don’t know if he came from Rajasthan or Maharastra, so we just say he came from the north,” says Nag.
Om Namo … comes two decades after Annamayya (1997) and a decade (2006) after Sri Ramadasu .
For an actor who doesn’t wear his religious beliefs on his sleeve, these characters were part of a transformative journey. “I am not ritualistic and neither are the others in my family. As an actor, each one of these roles changed something in me. The music, the lyrics and what they convey… all these have had an effect,” he shares. Some of the changes, he admits, have made him a better person. “It’s tough to explain what changed in me. It’s a deeper process,” he says.
The marked change, he recalls, happened during Annamayya . “My dad used to tell us ‘otthulatho maatladandra…’ I understood why he kept saying that. My grasp over Telugu got better after that film,” he says.
A lot has changed since the days of Annamayya and Nagarjuna is eager to gauge whether the younger audience will warm up to Om Namo …
“We’ve made an engaging, non-preachy film. We all have gone to Tirupati at some point and followed dos and don’ts because we were told to, without knowing the reasons behind them. This film will tell you the little stories behind those dos and don’ts in a fun manner. I’m hoping that will appeal to a younger audience. The way I look at it, we are drastically different from the regular mass masalas. We’ve seen formula films not doing well. In that sense, I feel we have a better chance,” he avers.
He and the film’s team have learnt from the experience of Shirdi Sai , which didn’t pass much muster at the box office. “We stuck to the story and kept things minimalistic. In the process, it became like a documentary,” he reflects.
The resurgence in stories inspired by myths and history, he feels, ensures that the audience gets a larger-than-life cinematic experience. “Films like Baahubali cannot be watched on a small screen. The same goes for our film. We’ve tried to show Tirumala as what it would have been in the 16th century, with no trace of urbanisation. The sculptures are in stone bereft of artificial colours, the jewellery is artistically done and the forest locales are picturesque,” he sums up.
* One of Nagarjuna’s next is a horror comedy, a genre he hasn’t dabbled with before. “I like watching horror films and liked the story,” he says, on choosing to be a part of Raju Gari Gadi 2 .
* Director Kalyan Krishna, who debuted with Nagarjuna starrer Soggade Chinni Nayana , is working on Naga Chaitanya’s next, billed to be a family entertainer on the lines of Ninne Pelladatha .
