As Bahubali: The Conclusion gets ready to follow up its big screen success [after Aamir Khan’s Dangal, the S.S. Rajamouli-directed magnum opus is the second biggest Indian blockbuster with a worldwide box-office kitty of Rs 1,725 crore] with its TV premier on Sony MAX this Sunday (1pm), t2 got chatting with Rana Daggubati in Hyderabad recently. Clad in jeans, white tee and a denim jacket, the 32-year-old strapping man is less the scary baddie — Bhallaladeva, the epic villain of the two Bahubali films — and more a charmer with a quick smile and and an equally quick wit.
Did you ever hesitate taking up a negative role like Bhallaladeva?
No, no, no. I have played so many characters in so many films and the only thing that I like to find in each film is the chance to do something that I haven’t done. When Rajamouli first came to me with the idea of what this film was about and told me what it is they want to do with it, I knew I had to be a part of it some way or another.
Were you ever afraid of being typecast as the baddie?
Well, if I played the same kind of role again and again I would be typecast but between the two Bahubalis, I did a film called The Ghazi Attack, and right after Bahubali 2 I did a (Telugu) film called Nene Raju Nene Mantri. Both were pretty successful films. And they were pretty different roles.
Fitting into other films in between the gruelling shooting schedule for Bahubali must have been so tough...
Well, I am a person who can’t stay idle for very long. I wish I had the patience that Prabhas (his co-star in Bahubali) has. I had two months off and there was a story that I heard, which was actually a short film that they wanted to turn into a feature, so I did Ghazi and came back. Of course it is harder to go do another film and come back, because they are all very different films, but I decided to do it.
Fantasy isn’t a popular genre when it comes to Bollywood...
That’s for you guys, you all don’t know about fantasy! We grew up on fantasy. That’s really what cinema is. That’s what is defining the world today. And it is what we grew up on.
So are you a fantasy film buff?
I am a film buff. For me, new stories are always exciting and if it throws up a world larger than yours then it is even more exciting. It is historically proven that films like that work, it’s just that it is very difficult to make them, so people don’t make it.
What was it like working with Anushka Shetty, Prabhas and Rajamouli for five years?
Obviously there was great camaraderie on the set between all the actors, otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to do something like this for five years. I’ve said this many times and I don’t care how many times I repeat myself, but I feel if you pull even one person out of this film it will not be the same film anymore. See, everyone believed in a common vision — the vision that Rajamouli had, the vision that producers Shobu (Yarlagadda) and Prasad (Devineni) had. We wanted to make this great cinematic spectacle and we went ahead and did it. Despite all the naysayers in the process, as it always happens. But it didn’t even matter because we knew exactly what this film was and we knew that this would be far bigger than anyone could see.
The level of physical fitness required for your role must have been difficult to achieve and to keep it going for five years...
Extremely! It was hard but it was fun too. I am not into fitness at all. I mean I do it for films. If I have to do another film like this I’ll have to get back to it. But ideally I try to do things to look as much like the character as I can. Obviously if I have to play a king or a warlord I need to look like that. But after Bahubali, till now, I think I have been to the gym only thrice.
Between the two Bahubalis, who do you think was the worthier opponent for Bhallaladeva?
I think it would be my (cousin) brother Amarendra Bahubali. He was a very righteous man. Those two, Amarendra and Bhallaladeva, were equals.
When we watched Bahubali, we felt that this was a villain who was absolutely the equal of the hero...
This is the way things are in good fantasy films, whether it is mythology or science fiction. When you watch Star Wars you always remember Darth Vader, when you listen to Ramayana you remember Ravana. Because that’s what these people do... they create the hero.
So do you believe in the saying that a film is as good as its villain?
Well a film is as good as the story that you are deciding to tell.
How has life changed after Bahubali?
I have always wanted to do films like Ghazi, something that is not mainstream. But putting together films like that is very, very hard. But Bahubali really worked like an armour. It let me go ahead and say, ‘Let’s do this just because it is exciting’. The last film I did was a political drama and it isn’t the format that you usually see in a Telugu film. I did a Telugu television show and I am now working with some stuff on the web. So it has at least opened up the possibility of doing a lot more things.
Bad guy or not, you are very popular with the ladies. How do you handle female adulation?
Well I have a policy that you don’t question something that is going very well, which is what I feel about all this. I don’t do cinema catering to just one kind of fans... I did war movies, I did submarine-based movies, I did political dramas and if there is attention coming from any one part of the audience it is good that they will come and watch all the other kind of cinema too.
What’s next on your platter?
Well I have had three releases this year already, including Bahubali (2). What I am working on right now is a story set in the British Raj, a story that is set in 1945. It is the story of a soldier in the Bose regiment.
Chandreyee Chatterjee
According to me, Bhallaladeva is an epic villain because....
Tell t2@abp.in
