Nani: ‘Ante Sundaraniki is a total laugh riot’

He is one actor whose performances have always been raved about even if the film is not a blockbuster. Having said that, his films have seen tremendous critical and commercial success and that’s perhaps why Telugu actor Nani’s career has seen far more highs than lows. As he is gearing up for his latest Telugu film Ante Sundaraniki to hit theatres on June 10, Nani is also busy promoting the film in Kerala and Tamil Nadu as it is being released in Malayalam and Tamil too.

“Today, films are no longer a Telugu film or a Tamil film - they are all Indian films and people from across India are watching them. Look at the success of RRR and KGF,” Nani cites as examples while talking about the release of Ante Sundaraniki in various languages. “Pan-Indian cinema is what we have today and people will watch a movie if it has good content.”  Incidentally, it was his last film Shyam Singha Roy, a period drama, that was the   actor’s first release in all South Indian languages and now he has followed it up with romantic comedy starring him and Nazriya Fahadh.

Ante Sundaraniki is actress Nazriya Fahadh’s first Telugu film in which she plays Leela Thomas, a Christian girl, and Nani, a Hindu Brahmin boy, named Sundar. Ask him how they got Nazriya to accept this project given how choosy she is about her roles and Nani smiles and says, “It was the script by director Vivek Athreya . She liked the script when she heard it and said yes to the film. We didn’t have to do anything beyond that. This movie is a complete romantic comedy and people are going to love it!”

As we can see from the trailer, Leela and Sundar who are from two different religions fall in love, and like we have seen in previous inter-faith love stories on screen, this usually is the central conflict in the film. “Our film is different - the inter-faith aspect of it is what we highlighted in the trailer but that’s not what the story is all about. We have shown the inter-faith aspect also in such a way that won’t be offensive to anyone. There are many layers to this movie and the audience will discover it when they go to watch the film; it is a laugh riot,” emphasises Nani who doesn’t want to reveal much before the release.

This movie is director Vivek Athreya’s third film and the first one he has collaborated with Nani for and it was the script that bowled the actor over. Interestingly, all of Vivek’s scripts have a strong element of comedy. “The script is amazing and every character adds value to the film. The movie might be about Leela and Sundar but it’s also much more than that,” he adds. Given Nani’s great sense of comedic timing, this movie seems to be a perfect platform for him to showcase his comedic skills especially after the serious Shyam Singha Roy.

“This movie will showcase a different side of me,” he smiles. But the movie is at a duration of two hours and 53 minutes so will there be audience fatigue one wonders. “The audience is going to be laughing throughout and enjoy it thoroughly. It’s only if the movie is boring that even a one-hour film will feel like an endless one. You will see that time just flies when you are watching Ante Sundaraniki,” Nani says confidently. “It is a sure blockbuster!”

Now that the audience is flocking to theatres, Nani believes that they are also looking for good content given their exposure to OTT platforms. “Look at the series of recent hits we have had - Pushpa, RRR, KGF, F3, Major and Vikram now - the audience is loving cinema and back in theatres. When OTT platforms came, everyone was saying theatres would die but I was very confident that this won’t happen. Theatres are here to stay and if you give the audience good films, they will come. That’s the power of cinema,” Nani signs off.

Latha Srinivasan is a senior journalist based in Chennai. Her passion is entertainment, travel, and dogs.

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