Nikhil Siddharth is constantly reinventing himself with interesting scripts. His upcoming film Kirrak Party with its college backdrop is actually a remake of a Kannada hit by the same name. “We made a lot of changes to the script for the Telugu version,” reveals Nikhil, adding that the original version was three hours long while the remake is half-an-hour shorter.
“My debut film Happy Days also had a college backdrop and now, after ten years, I am attempting a college subject once again. Kirrak Party is about college politics, elections and the incidents that are happening in colleges today. We even shot the film in a college campus with nearly two thousand students around,” says the actor, who underwent a dramatic makeover for his role in the film.
“For the student leader’s role, I needed to put on nearly 13 kilos,” informs the actor, who had to go back to a lean look in the second half of the film. “The transformation was very difficult. Reducing weight was tough, because I was eating eight to nine meals per day and hitting the gym most of the time for the bulky look in the first half. I didn’t use steroids or anything else as I wanted it to be a natural process. So, over a six-month period, every month, I put on two to three kilos,” he reveals.
The actor’s next film is a remake of Tamil film Kanithan. “The subject is very interesting and that’s why I chose the film. It’s not that I am doing continuous remakes, it depends on the subject,” he explains.
Interestingly, although Sharan Koppisetty is the director, directors Chandoo Mondeti and Sudheer Varma are also involved in the project. “Chandoo wrote the script and was supposed to direct it, but because of his other commitments, he couldn’t. Sudheer came to the shooting a few times. Both of them are my good friends and are also very close to director Sharan,” reveals Nikhil, adding that he re-lived his college days while shooting the film.
“Sharan, Sudheer, Chandoo and I are all engineering graduates and we know how the atmosphere in college is. Some of the scenes actually happened when we were in college,” he shares.
Talking about his marriage, Nikhil says he is still looking for the right match. “Recently, the media almost performed my marriage,” he quips, adding, “My parents are on the job and when I find the right partner, I will make an announcement.”
The actor adds, “I get scared when I hear about the many divorces happening in our society. When two people decide to marry, they should live happily together for the rest of their life.”
