‘Filmmakers have a moral responsibility’
RaNa Daggubati, who is back in town after wrapping his B-town film in Goa, talks to Hyderabad Times about things close to his heart
RaNa Babu kosama?” the man at the gate enquires, his tone gets reverential at the mere mention of his name. You are in RaNa Daggubati’s territory — right from the main gate to his office interiors, there are posters of Leader — RaNa sporting an intense look, propped up with leadership quotes ranging from the Mahatma to Lincoln. They do make you stop awhile and ponder. As you brace yourself to meet him, he zooms in with a just-from-Goa look — striding in a pair of checked Bermudas topped off with a white cotton shirt.
As we walk into his den, he tells us that he had a rollicking time in Goa. “I’m lucky to do Dum Maro Dum — Abhishek Bachchan, Aditya Pancholi, Bipasha Basu… they are so chilled out. I’m impressed by the enormous pre-production preparation that Bollywood filmmakers are into these days. Must be the corporate effect,” he grins, reaching out for some strong black coffee — “I’d like to say that I drink three cups a day, but usually I exceed. It’s something I picked during my SFX days,” says RaNa, who wears many hats with élan.
So what’s RaNa now — producer, businessman or actor? “Ever since I sold my animation business, I’m into films,”he declares. So, he’s playing a junkie in this forthcoming film. He laughs, “Don’t be misled by the title, Bipasha and I are not junkies, the film revolves around the drug business. It’s an issue-based film, an action-thriller of sorts.”
After a dream debut here, he immediately took to B-town setting a precedent of sorts, were there transition jitters? “Filmmaking is the same everywhere,” avers RaNa harking back to his production experience with the National Awardwinning A Belly Full of Dreams. Perhaps it’s his behind-the-camera experience a la Aamir Khan that makes him such a stickler for perfection. He rubs his calloused fingertips, evidence of his guitar classes, as he says, “Yeah! I can play the guitar. I also play a biker in the film and I had never ridden a bike till six months ago!”
That apart RaNa’s insisted on working on his Hindi diction. “I speak Hyderabadi Hindi and it is a different Hindi there,” he says giving us a demo of the problematic tha and zha. RaNa even worked on his Telugu diction for Leader.
He gracefully accepts the perks that come with the lineage — his grandfather is movie mughal D Ramanaidu, his father is producer Suresh Babu, his uncles Venkatesh and Nagarjuna are stars — but says it comes with a condition, “We have no excuses to fail. Our errors are not pardoned by the audience.”
The ‘we’ includes childhood buddies Ram Charan (they went to the same school and college), Allu Arjun his senior, and cousin Naga Chaitanya. That’s his party gang, his sounding board. “We rip one another apart,” he states as he revels in the constructive side-effects it has. Recalling an incident he says, “There were scenes in Leader with Richa Gangopadhyay, Sekhar saw them on the monitor and told me that my act was looking disjointed. He could not pinpoint the reason, but Bunny took one look at the monitor and said I was getting distracted by the prompter who was helping Richa with her Telugu!”
Family bonds are strong in Tollywood and the Daggubatis are a shining example. “We are a joint family, we eat three meals together,” says RaNa. Even his choice of a life partner he says will depend “primarily on how she adjusts to the family.”
So, what does this Kamal Haasan bhakt have in hand by way of films. “I wish I could tell you something, but nothing’s concrete. I am game for all genres even multi-starrers and multi-lingual ventures, I love dancing too but I won’t be playing dark roles. I’ve got an image and I think filmmakers have got a moral responsibility. I’d like to use this image for a good cause.
As we get up to leave, the sixfooter just towers, he’s much leaner and it surprises us as he says “I was once a pot-bellied corporate guy”. Thanks to his gym sessions and his mixed martial arts routine — just imagine him swaying to the beat of the Afro-Brazilian Capoeira.
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