Rana Daggubati is a gentle giant who strides the world of both the South and Hindi cinema with equal ease. Usually, South stars wait to get themselves established before taking the plunge in Hindi films but Rana was just a film old when he did Dum Maaro Dum in 2011. The move spoke volumes about his supreme confidence and also hinted at his penchant for taking risks. This desire to do something different made him accept the role of the antagonist Bhallaladeva in the Baahubali franchise. He devoted almost three years to the project but the risk paid off as he became established as a pan-Indian star. He broke a million hearts when he married his long-time sweetheart Miheeka Bajaj, in August last year. The threat of the coronavirus pandemic was very much in the air back then but the macho hero thinks this brave move further strengthened their ties. He has taken risk again by launching his own channel called SouthBay on YouTube. The channel promises to cater to the youth by targeting trending topics and trending celebs, both from North and South. Rana talks to Filmfare about his marriage, his upcoming films and his passion project in a candid interview. Excerpts...
You were the first star to have a lockdown wedding. What were the changes that you had to make to your wedding plans given the situation?
In fact, I felt it was the best time to get married. Obviously, there were a lot of people who I couldn’t invite but the whole thing felt extremely personal and nice. I wouldn’t have wanted it in any other way.
How did your parents react when you told them you wanted to get married during the pandemic?
They were extremely happy. The fact that I was getting married alone was enough motivation for them.
In fact, I felt it was the best time to get married. Obviously, there were a lot of people who I couldn’t invite but the whole thing felt extremely personal and nice. I wouldn’t have wanted it in any other way.
How did your parents react when you told them you wanted to get married during the pandemic?
They were extremely happy. The fact that I was getting married alone was enough motivation for them.
And how is married life treating you so far?
It’s great. You get a feeling of being balanced, settled. The bond you share is a great source of calm as well as energy. It’s fun, I’m definitely enjoying myself.
Name a hobby which you picked up during the lockdown that you will continue in the future.
Making short content that is irreverent and nonsensical… it’ll be funny and it’ll be deep when it has to be. I’ll keep at it consistently. That’s the idea.
You’ve launched your very own YouTube channel SouthBay. What can the fans expect to see in the future?
SouthBay was formed as a collaboration between mainstream and indie creators to make pop culture content in multi-languages. It will be filled with everything young people in age and spirit will want. The idea behind this is to curate content that is cultural. I think the internet has offered so much to creators that curation has become a bit of a burden. There is a large OTT world, Youtube… that is catering to people in different formats. The idea behind SouthBay was to go premium and into a space where everyone is. So far, we’ve told stories through movies, we’ve told stories on the OTT platform and I felt this was the next step. I feel we’ve all been lucky to grow with so much exposure and learn things from different parts of the world in terms of technology, lifestyle etc. So, the idea is to curate millennial news, information, gaming… curate everything that’s happening in the digital universe.
So, your channel intends to shed light on anything and everything that’s trending?
Not trending in particular. But, everything that has been part of subculture so far in India. It can be gaming, it can be music like independent artistes and DJs… all of them have been a part of the Indian subculture for quite a while and it was about time that we had a mainstream version too. Take the animation industry for example. We’ve had the animation industry for several years. However, it was always limited to the children’s space and was never experimented within the adult world. So, I thought why not take these people and make something mainstream and create content for us to consume. It’s hard to do that with a feature film but I think with SouthBay it’ll be easier to create such content.
What made you invest in such a property?
I’ve been watching a lot of content as a viewer. Apart from MTV back in the broadcast era, I’ve not really come across anything that has empowered the generation with content and culture. I also think that this lockdown came as a big help as I could sit down and gather my thoughts and figure out what was missing and fix it.
Your guest list consists of people coming from different walks of life as opposed to a film background that one would expect
Well, that’s my universe literally where pop culture icons meet reality in the quirkiest manner ...from Bhuvan Bam, Ram Gopal Verma, Karan Johar, Kangana Ranaut to Raja Kumari. It’s a full mix bag with real and fictional people and like I said, it’s because I want to introduce this culture and they’re a big part of it.
You’ve often spoken about OTT being on the rise. In the current situation, OTT platforms are the only viable option for filmmakers to get their content out there. Do you see things going back to how they were once normalcy ensues?
One thing that the pandemic has done is that it has ensured that our headspace is a little expanded when it comes to the content we watch. I feel once when things go back to normal, the scale of everything will be humongous. A lot has changed in these months for example several have adapted to the lifestyle of working from home. So, for them, cinema will be an outlet from their routine lives. I think we’ll get a better understanding of this as we move ahead in time. I’m sure there will be films made to enjoy on the big screen, there will be stuff made for OTT, for digital short content, gif format. And across all these portals, we’ll witness a rise in the content making and content consumption. That’s what I see happening when things get back to normal.
The internet is a great place to be but it can also be a source of a lot of negativity. What is your idea of dealing with it?
I think it doesn’t affect me as much now. Yes, in the beginning, I reacted to a lot of things but once you reach a following of this size, the majority expects you to do the right thing. They follow you and subscribe to your lifestyle. Invariably, it’s your choice. They follow you because you are you. If you go back to listening to how you’re supposed to be then you lose your own identity. I’ve always been clear in my head that this is what I do and this is a part of my job.
You’ve tasted success in regional cinema as well as mainstream Bollywood movies. What motivates you to work outside your safe zone?
Ever since I was growing up, I was a guy who was interested in films and the types of stories that we see in films. For me, it didn’t matter what language it was. If you look at my first two films. The first one was Leader (2010). It was a political drama set in Andhra Pradesh. Since it was a regional political film, it mainly dealt with Andhra politics. It obviously was a regional Telugu story. The second story that I heard and wanted to be part of was Dum Maaro Dum (2011). That was a film set in Goa and revolved around drugs and crime in the place. So, that would work in the national language as well. It need not be any regional film. So, for me, it’s the story that decides if a film needs to be multilingual or a regional language.
Tell us about your process of choosing a project
It’s the stories that motivate me to take that leap. Each industry offers such a different cultural film experience. I’ve been working for 10 years now and fortunately, I’m in a position where I have the liberty to choose the film, I want to be a part of. For example, I have an upcoming film called Haathi Mere Saathi. I was approached for it right after Baahubali by Eros. This is directed by Tamil director Prabhu Solomon. The idea of the film was to showcase a bond between an elephant and a man. Since it works on a larger scale, this is now a Hindi feature film as well. The other film that I’m doing right now is called Virataparvam. This was a story that came to me while I was shooting for Haathi Mere Saathi. It is a film set in the ’90s in the Naxal bank which is Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and those regions. Now, since this film was based on a regional setup, we shot the film in Telugu only. It’ll be dubbed in other languages too, of course, as is the norm nowadays. We didn’t shoot it in Hindi as it didn’t have a Hindi resonance.
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