Actor Nani is basking in the success of his latest release, Dasara, an action thriller which touches upon the socio-economic condition, political ambition and power struggle of the Singareni collieries. The multilingual film clocked in Rs 35 crore on its first day and crossed the Rs 70 crore mark at the global box office in its first weekend. What has helped it struck a chord with the audience is that it’s rooted to Indian mythology and with this, it has become the latest film to join the league of filmmaker SS Rajamouli’s RRR (2022) and filmmaker-actor Rishab Shetty’s Kantara (2022).
In an exclusive chat with News18, Nani comments on the increasing number of Indian films with a mythological template and admits that the trend is back after a lull. “I feel it’s like a circle. We all drift away [from a template] but come back to it eventually. Dasara deals with these characters and their emotions and is rooted in the Indian mythology. Once this cycle comes to an end, we will start trying out different things and then come back to mythologies again,” he tells us.
Talking about exploring traditional rituals and customs as a theme in Dasara, Nani says, “Our film is called Dasara and there’s a reason for it. It starts with the festival of Dussehra. There’s an underlying message of what Dussehra is and why we celebrate it and the triumph of good winning over evil. The basic logline of Dasara tries to convey the same message, directly and indirectly. We’ve all grown up celebrating Dussehra and so, it’s deeply embedded in us.”
The Jersey (2019) and Shyam Singha Roy (2021) actor believes that the Indian-ness of the film isn’t just drawing multitudes of people to the theatre but also acquainting the global audience with the cultures and values of a certain region against which Dasara is set. “We shot the film in Veerlapally and built a world around it. Dussehra is actually the biggest festival in Veerlapally and the area of Godavarikhani. Everything in the year happens revolving around the festival. A lot of things happen on that day and the repercussions are felt through the years,” he remarks.
The 39-year-old further adds, “I didn’t even know how they celebrate Dussehra. I came to know about Bathukamma (flower festival) in detail. For everyone across the country, it will be refreshing to know about these cultural traditions. It’s so exciting to know how people from other parts of the country celebrate a particular festival and their beliefs and sentiments.”
Prior to its release, Dasara was billed as the biggest release of the summers and went on to create historic numbers with its advance bookings in the UK. Acknowledging the sky-high expectations surrounding the film, Nani remarks, “The stakes were high but my confidence was too. I was not stressed out because I didn’t have any doubt about the content. Since I liked it, I was confident that everyone else will like it too. If I had any doubt about how people would react to the content of the film, then I would have been stressed out. My gut feeling told me that everyone would love the film.”
What also cemented his confidence in the film was when he realised that he enjoys a pan-Indian fan-base as he toured the country promoting Dasara. “I didn’t know about the frenzy that we’ve but I realised it once I started promoting it in Lucknow and a Holi fest in Mumbai. The audience were screaming out my dialogues from my previous films. It made me go, ‘Okay, now we have a solid chance here!’” says the actor, who is shooting for Nani30 co-starring actor Mrunal Thakur.
But does he get anxious before any release even after 15 years of being an actor? “People sometimes ask me why I still have butterflies in my tummy before every release even after so many years. I tell them it has gotten worse,” shares the Natural Star.
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