Success can change a person in two ways — it either makes one over confident, give a heady feeling or turns one into a totally humble and responsible person. Nikhil however continues to be the same struggling actor but a little over cautious that the recent success he saw with Swami Ra Ra doesn’t slip away from his hands.
The actor is now currently shooting for a Tamil film — a Tamil-Telugu bilingual and apparently his first Tamil project. He says that director Chandu is shooting the same scenes in Tamil as it will have a direct Tamil release. Chandu and Sudheer Verma (director of Swami Ra Ra) are friends so was it decided that one film would take off after the first one winds up? “No the film came to me while I was doing Swami Ra Ra. It wasn’t planned that I will do both one after the other. This film is called Karthikeya and will have a different name for the Tamil version. Linguswamy bought the Tamil rights and the Kannada version is also getting ready, the Malayalam version is being dubbed.”
Analysing the reasons that were instrumental in making Swamy Ra Ra work, Nikhil says, “Getting a film that gets you both critical acclaim and commercial success is very rare. Yuvatha I was feeling bad that I didn’t have good scripts coming my way or that I was going wrong in script selection. Obviously, I had to take what came to me. Later I decided to give myself time, be it six months or a year; I wanted a good script. It was a new banner, Sudheer Verma was nobody, but I believed in him, he proved that only when a director has a proper common sense and knows the pulse of the public, will he be able to deliver a hit. I had to pick the best of those within my reach. I have done nine movies and only three were really good.”
Nikhil explains, “Success makes me want to work hard. If I do one good film and the rest are flops they would term the whole thing a fluke. I want to make sure that doesn’t happen. People will begin watching my films only when I do good subjects consistently, I should instil that kind of confidence.”
The actor finally reveals a few interesting aspects of Kartikeya. “I play an MBBS student after a very long time, I played a student last in Happy Days. In Karthikeya I am a smart, well educated, suave young man. I get to wear good costumes, travel in good cars. Swati is a dental student from the same college. Karthikeya Swami Ra Ra Karthikeya and Ganesha are siblings and people in Chennai worship the former more. It is a thriller-cum-crime in a Chandramukhi or a Kanchana format. The aim is to provide enjoyment and also scare them. Seventy percent of the film is done. We are currently in Kumbakonam, it has beautifiul locations and a beautiful Subramanya Swamy temple. The film will release in the first week of January.”