Mumbai: Telugu film industry superstar Chiranjeevi returns to film with the period drama ‘Syeraa Narasimha Reddy’, and most importantly he will be sharing screen space with megastar Amitabh Bachchan. Chiranjeevi has said he is impressed and overwhelmed by the generosity of Amitabh Bachchan to work with him in the film.
“There is only one megastar and that is Amitabh Bachchan. Working with him is a great experience. In the film he is playing the character of my guru. My director wanted him to play the part. I made a call to him because I wanted to try once. Mr Bachchan said, ‘you tell me, what do you want?’. I told him that I was making a film on the unsung hero Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, and there is a special character of a guru, a teacher. I told him I wanted him to play my ‘guru’,” Chiranjeevi told the media during the teaser launch of the film, Tuesday.
Chiranjeevi, the South Indian superstar also recalled Big B’s reply: “He said, ‘Chiranjeevi, you have never asked me for anything. This is the first time you are expecting something from me. I will do it’. I am so happy that he immediately agreed to be part of the film. My heartfelt thanks to the megastar,” Chiranjeevi added.
Directed by Surender Reddy, the film also features Sudeep, Vijay Sethupathi, Jagapathi Babu, Nayanthara, Tamannaah and Anushka Shetty.
It should be stated here that Chiranjeevi worked in films from 1978 to 2006 and then shifted focus to politics. He returned to movies in 2016. Chiranjeevi said that felt nice to come back to the movie industry with a film like ‘Syeraa Narasimha Reddy.’ “I was working in 2016, so I do not really know from when the gap came. But it is good that I am coming back with this film,” Chiranjeevi said.
‘Syeraa Narasimha Reddy’ is being produced by Chiranjeevi’s son Ram Charan. The veteran actor went through a look transformation for his role. “I really had to work hard. My son is producing the film, so I thought I could go easy, but that didn’t happen! I thought they will give me a double for the action sequence because I have a bad shoulder, but I had to do many actions by myself. I did a sword fight and horse-riding, and it was not easy at all. But I enjoyed the hard work and cherish the memory of shooting this film,” said Chiranjeevi.
There were rumours that Tamil superstar Rajinikanth would dub for Chiranjeevi for the Tamil version of the film, while Malayalam veteran Mohanlal would do the honours for the Malayalam version. Chiranjeevi denied all such reports, saying: “That is not true. None of them are dubbing for the film.”
The film releases October 2.
IANS