Never Been In A Hurry To Do Films: Rana Daggubati

Rana Daggubati’s upcoming trilingual film “Haathi Mere Sathi” will be his first major release since 2017’s “Baahubali: The Conclusion”, but the actor says the long gap between his films doesn’t bother him. The 35-year-old actor said as an artiste his aim is to serve “unique” content to the audiences.

“I’m not your popular culture hero to have releases in quick succession. I’m someone who likes to take up new subjects and it takes a lot of my time,’’ Rana told PTI. “When we started ‘Baahubali’, we’d planned it as a two-three year project but it ended up taking 5 years of our time.

But the experience taught me so much. Similarly, ‘Haathi Mere Saathi’ took about two years. I think it’s quite becoming a norm with my films even though I don’t wish,” he added. Rana said if he believes in a story he doesn’t mind investing time in the project.

“I was never in an urgency of doing films.Whatever time I invest in a film, it has to be worth it when audiences watch it on screen. Unless I come with something really unique, people are not ready to accept my work.

I’ve seen it with a small scale films like ‘Ghazi Attack’ and later with a mega budget project like ‘Baahubali’.” Directed by Prabhu Solomon, “Haathi Mere Saathi” is about “a man who fought for the jungle, the animals and against the society”. It will release across the country in three languages—Hindi, Tamil and Telugu—on April 2.

The actor said working on the film was both exhausting and exciting. “Working with real elephants may sound exciting on paper but it was extremely exhausting. Ten days into the shoot, I called SS Rajamouli sir and told him how challenging this project had already become. It was equally exciting because we were doing something different; we were telling the story of a much bigger issue.”

The film was shot in three languages consecutively, and Rana said the routine gave him a better understanding of his character. “When you’re performing the same scene thrice, you get much deeper into the character. As I was doing my scenes in three languages, I was starting to understand my character better. It felt like I knew this guy (Rana’s character) like the back of my head.

It helped in enhancing my performance,” he said. The actor added that the film taught him the importance of co-existence. “When we started this film, it was just another story we wanted to bring on screen. But what happened through the course of the shoot is that I realized the world is just not for us.

“A decade ago, if poaching of tigers and elephants was a pressing issue, urbanisation has become a major threat to forests today,” he said. “Haathi Mere Saath”, which will release as “Kaadan” in Tamil and “Aranya” in Telugu, also features Pulkit Samrat, Shriya Pilgaonkar and Zoya Hussain.