Against the flow

Clear and candid, actor Varun Tej is not in a hurry to establish himself as a star

Varun Tej

HYDERABAD: It's been a long time since we had an actor standing tall at six feet four inches. While everyone labels Varun Tej handsome and the next actor to watch out for, he himself demurs, “I feel shy when people say that and also humbled. Since my childhood people have been saying I am his (father Naga Babu’s) xerox copy but of late I too have observed there is a lot of resemblance. When I answer the phone they would mistake me for him; there are a lot of similarities. My wavy hair, my granny says, runs in our DNA, my grandpa apparently had it.”.

On doing films that are not template-driven, he has a balanced view and says no one pushed him to do the kind of cinema he should be doing. He adds, “I was clear that I wanted to do something different. I was kind of vexed with the stories I was listening to. I always wanted to attempt something new. Even in Mukunda , I played a character which I could relate to and not do the regular song and dance and bashing baddies to pulp, reel off satires and challenging dialogues. I believe that cinema which is content driven will definitely work at the box office. After Mukunda, many people advised me to do a commercial film as I hardly had any romantic scenes in my debut. I definitely want to do a template movie a bit later which is part of all the genres on my list. My next film with Puri Jagan is somewhat like that. Charan anna told me that I should be following my heart at least in the initial stages of my career, because after a few movies you will fall into a bracket and will be obliged to do only certain kind of cinema.” He reminisces on the 25 days in Georgia for Kanche , “I lived the life of a soldier apart from the nights I spent at the hotel. My dad is into history and both of us discuss a lot of topics, we have deep conversations. I was aware of history but till Krish told me, I didn't know that we had our people wage a war. The war episode was physically very tough, I had to carry a gear of 25 kilos on me. When it came to the climax, I was carrying three or four real guns weighing four kgs each, belt, water bottle, big shoes, backpack, helmet, sling bag and another gun in my hand and running everyday.”

Thanks to

Kanche, the actor has begun to value his freedom a lot more and his respect for soldiers and the defence forces has gone up too. He observes that they don't even know if they will be alive to see the sun the next day. He avers, "I salute all the soldiers of just not our country but of all countries who safeguard their borders unconditionally.”He adds, “

Kanche is not primarily a war film, it is a lovely story set against a war backdrop. Kudos to the antagonist Nikitin Dheer who did a great job and stood out.”...

Varun may be three films old now, but dance is not his forte. Varun says Kanche doesn't have any dances. He tried training for his debut film

Mukunda but it didn't work. He quips, “I sprained my ankle, then something else happened another time. Despite all that I thought I should learn to dance. In Mukunda I didn't have the confidence, bhayanga chesaanu (did it with fear) . But for Kanche, Brinda master boost my confidence and I completely enjoyed the process in Puri's film. I would have practised more but had no time but I am now keen on learning it. When I say I want to dance, it’s something that will suit my body language and not look funny and not on par with NTR, Charan, Allu Arjun.”