There Are Still Many Untold Stories About India's Culture, Says Nikhil

Tollywood actor Nikhil Siddhartha is not the one to rest on past laurels. After his super successful outing—Karthikeya 2 with Chandoo Mondeti, the actor is prepping for his next, Swayambhu. Deccan Chronicle caught up with him for an exclusive chit-chat.

Excerpts

How are you preparing for your next movie, Swayambhu?

The preparation has been intense. Normally, you know actors just take 20-25 days to start shooting for a film. But we have been discussing this film for the last five months. So, the script work has been going on. We are fine tuning the script at the same time. We're also making sure that every actor knows what he has to do like people need to horse ride, or fight. The heroine has been training and what I'm going to train in, his body conditioning as well as getting a very authentic like a thousand year old. This movie set in 1010AD in South Central India. So we're trying to get the look right. We're going all out for it.

So, you're excited about that!

I've come out after long time. But I feel like I'm living in like that era.

How do you switch between characters after living a character—say like in Karthikeya or in this movie?

I really enjoy that because in Karthikeya 2, I was a doctor. I enjoyed being that. In 18 Pages, I was a software employee so I enjoyed being that yeah and living many lives is something I think the best boon of every profession. I am sure journalism has got its perks. I believe that an actor's biggest perk is being able to live different lives.

Do you take away anything from every character you play?

Yes. I do. There's a dialogue in Karthikeya 2, where the heroine says what do you think? You're called to save people's lives? He says I'm not God, I'm a doctor. So I take away that doctors are in a way saving people's lives like God. I cannot talk about Swayambhu, but I do believe that righteousness, Dharma and all these things are things which we are talking about in the movie and that would be a good takeaway from this. 18 Pages was like you don't need to look at a girl to fall in love. So everything's got something.

Karthikeya 3 on cards?

Yes. We announced this recently. But I think that the genre deserves more sequels and more movies to be made because there are so many mysteries and several untold stories about India’s culture that we can make 30 to 40 sequels. I think a few of them have to be told to the next generation which our grandmothers would tell us. So we are going to do that through our movies.

An actor's next stop usually is politics. Do you have any such plans?

I think politics is a thankless job. However good you are, people criticize you. I'm so happy being an actor because so much love and affection comes from every side. So I'm very happy being an actor. I think till the day I die, given God's grace, I'll just want to act. But I'm a responsible citizen and definitely I will go out and vote and be a part of the political process, but not as a politician.