Actor Rana Daggubati on Saturday said Indian projects can go global if the makers focus on “local” stories which are unique to the country. Daggubati, the star of blockbusters like the “Baahubali” franchise and the political thriller “Nene Raju Nene Mantri”, said even if the country were to have a global-hit show like Netflix’s “Money Heist”, it can work if it has local elements woven into it.
“India is a land of stories with the greatest mythologies ever written. And they’ve been written at a scale that puts ‘Game of Thrones’ to shame in that sense. There’ll be two-three directions that’ll automatically take us (global). “Because it’s our culture that we are representing. So if it’s ‘Money Heist’, let’s rob stuff the way Indians would… It’ll still be our culture and our ethic that would make that story go places,” he said. Daggubati was part of a panel discussion to celebrate two years of streaming platform SonyLIV’s relaunch. He was joined by filmmakers Hansal Mehta, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Nikkhil Advani, Applause Entertainment CEO Sameer Nair and Danish Khan, Business Head of Sony LIV, Sony Entertainment Television and StudioNext.
“What will take us to the global audiences? Stories which are extremely local, things that happen in different parts of the country, which are new to the world and unique to us,” he added. The 37-year-old actor is producing several shows for SonyLIV, including “Case Files of Hemanth Rao”, which is in pre-production.
Daggubati, who recently finished filming his crime-drama series “Rana Naidu” for Netflix, said he is now trying to understand the process of long-form storytelling. “We have been a film company for about 50 years. Our mind still is of three-hour storytelling. I just completed finishing another show for another network. We are still understanding what long-form writing means because we didn’t live through a premium moment of TV,” he added.
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