Many artistes hit a purple patch in their careers, but what separates the good from the great is the ability to make the most of it while learning from their mistakes. Nani was virtually absent for a couple of years with either his films turning Turkey at the box office or he giving long gaps before embarking on a new project. While Yevade Subramanyam is almost done, Nani reveals, “I have resolved not to take a break at all. There have been huge gaps and delays. I haven't been seen anywhere in 2013 and 2014. It is okay when films don't run, but vanishing is not correct. My career wasn’t planned, never had any targets. I just go by my instincts, and I think I am doing good work. But for these breaks, I wouldn’t have learnt.”
Nani's strength has been his boy next door looks and all his roles were something that a common man could relate to. Besides, he neither sticks to a genre nor picks films because a particular genre is considered a trend. “True”, he says and adds, "When films fail, we definitely feel bad because as a team we put in so much effort. But there has never been any kind of insecurity. I always introspect and analyse what could have gone wrong. Luckily people come to me with all kinds of stories because I don’t have a tag. Last summer I must have heard 90 stories and I picked those that excited me. ”
The actor is all praise for producers Priyanka and Swapna Dutt and their sincerity and conviction. He has seen dedication and an urge to do something fresh in whatever they do. He avers, “They made Banam and it was critically acclaimed. Sometimes films fail but you can't write them off, they have really good taste and are sensible girls. Nag Ashwin, the debutant director is a simple man. Unlike most first time directors, he wasted no time in narrating or trying to impress, because he had strong content and was very confident. I found it fresh, it went against the formula.”
“ We shot for 40 days in biting cold and slept in zipper bags. ”
The poster of Yevade Subramanyam , with one arrow for Yevade and another with Subramanyam pointing the other way, apparently signifies doubts about a right path. Subconsciously it is Subramanyam's self discovery. Nani plays a businessman who finds himself placed in a precarious situation and place. He elaborates, “It is a coming of age film. If you do something mechanically for years to come, you tend to think that is life but put yourself in a totally bizarre location and you tend to discover so many aspects of yourself and life in general. The real you comes out, the film is about who this Subramanyam really is.”
Having shot in the Himalayas, Nani narrates the most adventurous shoot ever that was shot without the regular equipment and paraphernalia. "Unless you have passion you can't pull off such a film, we shot for 40 days without communicating with family, in biting cold and slept in zipper bags. We would walk miles for a shot and return amidst receding oxygen levels, rising hallucinations and depression. The first ten days shoot I thought would be impossible, sometimes there was anger, and silence but the director was calm because he knew what the end product would be. After the end of the shoot all of us felt proud that we could do it. The visuals were spectacular, I sported a new look, there was a new story; everything was mentally stimulating, changing the body language was a challenge. There was excitement in the morning and a sense of achievement every evening. We were hit by a blizzard, one in our team just ate a leaf and fell unconscious, we had to call a chopper by satellite phone and had him airlifted. We went as 35 people but returned as 26, the rest returned much earlier. If something were to happen to artistes, the shoot would have stopped but luckily the technicians were two in number just as stand by so that if one fell sick the other could take over."
Nani looks very satisfied and winds up with , "If you don't like a film or do a film out of obligation in a comfortable zone, it would be very painful, but when you do something with passion, interest and belief in it, it excites you.”
