Nani on direct digital release of his film V: I always look forward to the first-day first show experience

“These days, everyone keeps saying that a 25th film is special in an actor’s journey. But I never realised that it will be so special in my case,” Nani laughs, referring to everything that has happened in 2020 owing to the coronavirus outbreak. His latest film, V, directed by Indraganti Mohana Krishna, was slated for release in late March. However, it was soon postponed when theatres were shut down and the nation went into a lockdown.

More than five months later, V has turned out to be one of the biggest Telugu films, so far, to opt for a direct digital release on Amazon Prime Video India. Nani admits that it was a tough decision to make for the team. “I’ve always looked forward to witnessing the first-day, first-show experience in a cinema hall. And I sincerely feel that V would have been a great watch in a cinema hall, but we missed it. But getting a direct release on an OTT is a unique experience for me and the rest of the team. I guess I now have a story to tell years later about what happened when my 25th film was about to release,” he says.

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The film also stars Sudheer Babu, Nivetha Thomas, and Aditi Rao Hydari in lead roles. Incidentally, all of them have worked with Indraganti Mohana Krishna in the past. For Nani, V is his third film with the filmmaker, who introduced him as an actor with Ashta Chamma back in 2008. “Both of us have grown so much over the years,” Nani says, “He has evolved as a filmmaker, and with each film, the director and writer in him keeps getting even more polished. I have changed as an actor too. But off screen, nothing has changed. He messages me whenever he sees my films, and I do the same with him. Our relationship has been the same, and it feels like we tend to collaborate with each other after every five-six films, and then we move on to other projects.”

So far, all we know is that V is the story between a successful cop and his arch nemesis, who throws a big challenge at him. Nani clarifies that he is not the villain in the film. “I might come across as a negative character from Sudheer’s point of view in the film, but the audience will root for me. It’s got that interesting element going on throughout. What I really loved about this character is that he will always keep you guessing about what he’s going to do next. He leaves you with an eerie feeling, and it’s definitely the most brutal and wacky character I have played so far. But the biggest surprise is that it’s all coming from Indraganti Mohana Krishna,” Nani smiles. “When he pitched the story to me, I knew I wanted to play the bad guy. There are a lot of films which are modelled like a cat-and-mouse game with lots of twists and turns. V falls in a similar space, but more importantly, I think we have achieved to make an emotional impact in the end.”

Prior to his debut as an actor, Nani had worked as an assistant director, and later as an RJ for some time. It was a TV commercial, that Nandini Reddy had directed, that got his acting skills noticed, and there has been no looking back for him. “I had written the script for the ad, and on the day of the shoot, I ended up being the replacement for another actor who was supposed to play that part. Incidentally, Mohana Krishna Indraganti and producer Ram Mohan happened to watch the ad while it was being edited. And that’s how they convinced me to come onboard Ashta Chamma. Initially, they offered the role of Anand (which was later played by Srinivas Avasarala), but then one day, Ram Mohan convinced Mohana Krishna to visualise me as Rambabu based on my body language while I was walking down the road,” Nani laughs while recounting this story.

Talking about the experience of shooting V, Nani said that it was both gratifying and tiresome at the same time. “There’s so much action and we had to travel quite a bit to shoot the film. It was really tiresome. At the same time, I was really excited about it at the same time. If I take _Jersey_ for example, within the first three days, I know all about Arjun. The whole film is in my head, and I knew that I can’t cross the line while playing that character. But V isn’t like that. Because the character is so unpredictable, my approach to the role had to be a lot more dynamic. The character has to keep people guessing and create a sense of anticipation about what he is going to do next. That was exciting. Mohana Krishna and cinematographer PG Vinda have outdone themselves. I can’t wait to see how people will react to our film,” Nani says.

For the past few years, Nani has been working on at least two to three films at any given time, and the beginning of 2020 was no different. He had begun shooting for Tuck Jagadish, and had three other projects lined up before the lockdown was announced due to COVID-19 outbreak. But the break from work has also been a blessing in disguise. “I have been quite busy as an actor for the past few years, and I used to feel terrible that I couldn’t spend more time with my son (Arjun). I wanted to see him grow, walk, learn new things, and be there for him as a father. Thankfully, this long break from work has helped me do all that. I feel fully recharged and energised to get back to work now,” he says.

The pandemic has changed the lives of people across the spectrum, and Nani is no different. But that change, he reveals, does not have anything to do with films. “As an actor, right from the beginning, all I wanted to do was find something that won’t make me feel too comfortable. I want to challenge myself, but at the same time, I don’t overthink about the stories we tell or the kind of films we ought to make. I know what I’ve to do in my next few films, and that’s not going to change,” he says.

Beyond his work, however, a lot has changed. “If there’s an important lesson that I’ve learnt because of this pandemic and how our lives have changed, it’s that we have to focus on today. That’s all we have in our hands. We keep planning so much about what we are going to do next. But no one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. It’s important that we have fun, talk to people whom you want to, and if you want to do something, do it today. Because, who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow,” Nani signs off.

V will release on Amazon Prime Video on 5 September.