Despite delivering a hat-trick hits (Swamy Ra Ra, Karthikeya, Surya Vs Surya), hero Nikhil is down-to-earth to admit that he is not a big star. In a candid conversation, cool and composed Nikhil talks about his immediate film Sankarabharanam, working with Kona Venkat, upcoming films, marriage plans and more.
Genesis of Sankarabharanam
One fine day Kona garu asked me to come to his working office where he writes all his scripts. I went to see him thinking of why he called me. There he said that he is doing a film with me and narrated script of Sankarabharanam. However, he didn’t give me full narration, he had told me only few portion. I asked him for full narration.
Though Kona garu was big man, he was down-to-earth. He didn’t have ego. He had narrated me full version after sometime and it was spell-binding. We’ve full remake rights of Phas Gaye Re Obama. It’s not a free-make. We’re ethical and we bought total remake rights. However, the second-half has been changed.
About His Role
I play the role of an ABCD (American Born Confused Desi) NRI. Usually, American Born NRIs face ironical situation. When theyr’e in US, they’re treated as Indians and when they’re in India, due to their accent, they’re treated as US citizens. It’s a challenging to play such role. There’s a comic side to my role and every role in the film. My role is not tailor-made role for me. It suits for any hero in Telugu industry. I’m lucky it happened to me.
Titled after Classic Film?
When Kona garu first told me its title, I was shocked, taken aback. But he convinced me the reason behind naming the film so. It’s a complete marketing strategy to use a well-known name. Also, there’s a title justification for the film at its very beginning. Our film is a complete and clean movie. There’s no degrading the classic. Kona garu took permission of K. Viswanath garu who was impressed and agreed to it. In fact, he only launched our music. Our movie might not great film, but it won’t let down the classic Shankarabharanam.
Kona Dominated Director Uday?
Shankarabharanam is team effort. We’ll worked hard for it. Kona garu used to come to sets early and stay till the late night. He supervised the film whereas Uday Nandan executed it. Kona, Uday traveled for 10 years and they both together decided on shot divisions. So, there’s no question of domination. It was their collective decision. Working in Bihar wasn’t easy. We faced few tough moments as Bihar wasn’t safe due to its crime rate. But we forgot everything due to our film’s output.
On Experiments
Experiments work for me because I’m not a big star and budgets of my films are under control. A big star couldn’t take risk as huge money is at stake. I’m glad films like Swamy Ra Ra, Karthikeya and Surya Vs Surya worked for me. If I weren’t having patience to listen to umpteen scripts, I’d not have got opportunity to select such scripts and would not have find directors like Sudheer Varma, Chandu Mondeti.
Upcoming films
I’m teaming up with director VI Anand for a fantasy drama. It’s going to be made on a huge scale. Yes, I’ll be romancing three heroines in the film of which Avika Ghor has been finalised. The film’s shoot will start from Dec 25th or 26th onwards.
Karthikeya Sequel
I’m doing Karthikeya sequel. Chandu is going to direct this. It’s a proper sequel where it starts from exactly where the franchise has ended. The script has been locked and even registered.
On parting note, Nikhil said that Sankarabharanam is complete entertainer. He said he’ll be tying the knot in the next year (Probably before Summer 2016).