Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi returns to film with the period drama "Syeraa Narasimha Reddy", and sharing screen space with him is Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan. Chiranjeevi says he is impressed and overwhelmed by the generosity of Big B to wotk 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. He 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 on Tuesday.
Chiranjeevi 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.
Chiranjeevi worked in films from 1978 to 2006 and then shifted focus to politics. He returned to films in 2016.
So, when talk of this film, being his comeback venture came up, Chiranjeevi said: "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."
What changes has he noticed over the past few years? "The scene was different from the nineties till 2007. When I entered (the industry) again in 2016, so much has changed that I felt like a newcomer. The atmosphere is different now, and the energy is new. The exhibition and distribution system also changed. Having said that, the sentiment of watching the film on a big screen and the soul of films and storytelling is in the right place. The external change is a part of the system," he said.
"Syeraa Narasimha Reddy" is produced by Chiranjeevi's son Ram Charan. The veteran actor went through a look transformation for his role in "Syeraa Narasimha Reddy", and shot a lot of the action sequences by himself. "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 deniedall such reports, saying: "That is not true. None of them are dubbing for the film."
Ram Charan added: "Mohanlal sir is giving a voiceover on the Malayalam trailer and presenting it. For Telugu, Pavan Kalyan is doing a voiceover for the trailer."
Chiranjeevi mentioned, " I wanted Kamal(Hassan) to do the same for Tamil but he is not doing it."
The film releases on October 2.