Ghanta Naveen Babu, known professionally as Nani, is one of the busiest stars in Telugu cinema. His latest release, Shyam Singha Roy, was a success on OTT and in theatres. Nani plays the titular character of a Bengali revolutionary, reincarnated as an aspiring Telugu filmmaker. The actor has also been in the news for a while because of the upcoming Hindi remake of his 2019 hit Jersey, starring Shahid Kapoor.
In an exclusive conversation with News18, Nani elaborates on the pan-India appeal of South films and why he is not jumping at the chance of starring in a Bollywood film right away.
Jersey was so successful in Telugu, you didn’t want to star in the Hindi remake as well?
We never thought about making a remake initially. The whole idea of remake came when Shahid Kapoor watched the film and wanted to do it. That is when the whole remake process started. And then Gowtam Tinnanuri, the original director, was also asked to helm the remake. So we never had the remake as an idea when we started off Jersey. So now I’m very excited to watch the Hindi version to see someone else play Arjun.
Even now a lot of people from the North, who watch the original with the subtitles, message me on social media about how much they love the film. People who have watched the original Jersey are also waiting for the remake in Hindi. It’s amazing.
I am sure you have been receiving Bollywood offers yourself. Why haven’t you taken up any yet?
I want to do something which makes sense. There are so many amazing actors in Bollywood, so if someone is coming to me I need to see a point why. I can’t do a Hindi film for the sake of it. So there has to be a good reason why a filmmaker will come to me with a certain role. Also, how exciting will it be for me, because I do back to back films in Telugu. To stop something here and actually go there and do something, there should be a good reason. I want it to be very organic when it happens.
Your film Shyam Singha Roy was released on Netflix and in theatres. Did it help you reach newer audiences?
The response to the film has been overwhelming, both in theaters and on Netflix. My phone hasn’t stopped ringing. I’m so happy that all the team’s hard work has paid off. All all we really wanted to tell was a beautiful love story. I’m glad that everyone did notice every smallest detail in the film. Which even while shooting, we were thinking a lot of things were very unsaid, very subtle. The do it does everyone get it? And now after the release of the film, and everyone is discussing those things, we’re very, very happy as a team.
It’s a Telugu film with a Bengali name, and presents a mix of the two cultures. Were you worried about getting the nuances right?
We thought that everything needs to be right and perfect, but there was no apprehension because I think that is what makes the whole thing whole journey challenging and exciting. Unless you want to show something new, try something new, you will never be able to deliver something great. If you play safe, even the result or the film will be at some mediocre level. Only when you take the plunge you will be able to deliver something memorable. And we were always confident that we’re doing something very special and glad that the result also matched our expectations.
South films, released on OTT and in theatres, are gaining viewers all over India. How to you perceive the trend?
I think it’s a huge boon that we are able to show our films to all the film lovers across the country, in whichever language. Thanks to social media, if there is a good film in Malayalam, I get to see a post about it, someone tweeting about it, that it is supposed to be good, I get to know that information. Once I hear that this film is good in some language, I can check where it is available and I get to watch it. So thanks to the technology, we are able to do that. This actually is taking the film to a much wider audience.
Filmmakers don’t really need to plan a pan-India film, all they really need to make is a great film, and the audience will automatically come. People are also preferring to watch a film with subtitles instead of dubbed version, because that takes away the feel of the original language. All this is actually making it so much good for cinema that any good talent in any industry will get noticed across the country.
