More than a week since its release on Dasara, veteran actor Chiranjeevi's latest Telugu film Godfather is running successfully in theatres across the two Telugu speaking states. Directed by Mohan Raja, the film has Satya Dev, Nayantara and Puri Jagannath in significant roles. A remake of the 2019 Malayalam film Lucifer starring Mohanlal, Godfather is a crime thriller that deals with the entanglement of family and politics. In the wake of the film’s box office success, Chiranjeevi took time to interact with the media at his residence in Jubilee Hills of Hyderabad on October 13, Thursday.
Speaking on his intentions behind doing the film Godfather, Chiranjeevi said that he wanted to see if the audience would accept him in such a role and a movie, which did not have all the typical elements of a Telugu movie. “I wanted to see what the audience’s reception would be, so that I can experiment more with my upcoming projects instead of sticking to the usual formula. I wanted to get out of cliché films with just action, songs and comedy scenes,” the actor said.
Stating that over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms have brought a lot of changes in the way the audience perceives movies, he added that he wanted to make films that are different from the routine formulaic ones.
In Godfather, Bollywood star Salman Khan had made a special appearance for the first time in Telugu cinema. The cameo has also helped the film garner attention from the northern belt. Speaking to TNM, Chiranjeevi said that he was definitely ready to do special, cameo roles in films from other industries, if he liked the role that was being offered to him. “This kind of association and cross-appearances between industries will help erase the borders among us, establishing us as ‘Indian cinema’ first and foremost,” he said.
Success or failure does not affect him anymore, the megastar said, adding that he has moved past that mentality. The box office failure of his last film Acharya, directed by Shiva Koratala, had been a setback for the team. Chiranjeevi and his son Ram Charan had acted together in the film, and according to the former, the duo had returned 80% of their remuneration to the producer after the film tanked.
Meanwhile, it was further revealed that in his 154th film, Chiranjeevi will be delivering his dialogues in an East Godavari dialect. The title and a teaser of the movie has been planned for release on Deepavali. The movie is being helmed by director Bobby. Besides, his 155th movie is titled Bhola Shankar, and is a remake of the 2015 Tamil film Vedalam starring Ajith Kumar. The movie is being helmed by Meher Ramesh.
The actor also said that he was keen on working with more young directors, especially considering their exposure to new concepts and technology. He is apparently also listening to two more scripts, which are yet to be finalised. He further added that he would like to work together with his brother Pawan Kalyan, if any director approached them with an interesting script.
When asked about his political stint, Chiranjeevi responded that he had no regrets about quitting politics. “If I were in politics, I might have been in a better position in that field and closer to the people of Andhra Pradesh. But now I am close to the people of both states, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. So I have no regrets about staying away from politics,” he added.