Looking at Daggubati Venkatesh, one can’t believe that he is 55, but the actor says that it is a fact that he is becoming old, with that charming smile with which he wooed Tollywood. The actor has completed 30 years in the film industry. “The best part is that people haven’t lost interest in me; it encourages me to take up interesting projects,” he says.
He adds that he has been deliberately slowing down his career. “When my father was ill, I took a break and later, nothing interesting came up. Also, it is very difficult to get scripts after one stage. You have to slow down and analyse what suits you without questioning the intelligence of people. I can’t do a character which looks silly on the screen.”
However, he has four movies, including Babu Bangaram, in his kitty now and Venkatesh considers it a divine intervention. “I don’t know what happened. Everything is Almighty’s decision. I have never worried about being busy or sitting idle. Whenever I am free, I could introspect,” says the actor, who was impressed by the script when director Maruthi approached him.
“I have done cop roles, but this one is completely different. It is also a family entertainer apart from being a cop story,” says Venkatesh, who is paired up with Nayanthara in the movie. He laughs when he says it is difficult finding heroines for senior actors. “We have to accept the truth that we are becoming old. In the beginning of my career, I introduced many actresses, but that stage is over now. This is another phase. But if we have a good script, the female lead will naturally come in,” says Venkatesh.
On dance and action scenes, he says he manages to dance. “We look young, but we can’t work like a youngster. I can dance anytime as I have full energy, but I can’t do crazy steps or a snake dance. My dance suits my age,” he smiles. However, the actor had recently revealed that he would act till his son Arjun entered the industry. Is he planning to launch his son soon?
“Though I said that, I won’t force him to do anything. My father had given me freedom to choose my path. I don’t know what Arjun wants to be. Sometime back, when both of us were watching a cricket match, somebody told him, ‘You are lucky that your father is a big actor and you could follow his footsteps’ and he replied, ‘I have my own footsteps’. He has his own dreams, let him follow those.”
He is also happy that a lot of debutantes are joining the industry. “There are many young talents coming up with different concepts. Let them come up. I can’t force anyone to write a script which I can’t do. Let them give a chance to newbies and if they have anything for me, I will do it,” he reveals. Venky is preparing to act in the role of a boxer in the Telugu remake of Saala Khadoos. “I am putting on weight, but not like Rana or others. The film will start soon,” he says.
Being the hero of a lot of successfully remade movies, people used to call him ‘the remake hero’. “I don’t bother about all those. I don’t look whether it’s a remake or a fresh subject. I just do my work and go home and if the producer makes money, I am happy,” he says.
Unlike many actors, who plunge into deep disappointment when their films bomb, Venkatesh is quite cool. “I know the result by evening and I forget it immediately. That is one lesson I learnt from my father. He never sits on it,” says Venky, who also accepts that he sometimes overacts and does mistakes. “But whenever we do make mistakes, we learn more,” he concludes.
