Veteran Filmmaker SS Rajamouli says that he doesn’t categorise actors or audience based on their language, for him there is just the Indian audience and actors that fit the part.
The filmmaker was interacting with the media on the sidelines of a special collaboration with multiplex chain PVR cinemas. Rajamouli is known for making Telugu cinema and his forthcoming film ‘RRR’ features main-stream Hindi actors such as Ajay Devgn and Alia Bhatt.
When asked about casting on the basis of full inclusion, he said: “I stopped looking at actors as south or north, Hindi or Tamil or Kannada, I have stopped looking at stars like that, and ever before that I’ve stopped looking at audiences in that manner – Hindi, Tamil, Bengali or Malayalam like that, I just look at them as Indian audience. That is something I have been doing for a very long time.”
Releasing multi-starrer mega-budget films in theaters post pandemic is turning into an issue with filmmakers as the cost-recovery is difficult, if not nearly impossible.
With ‘RRR’ gunning for theatrical release, SS Rajamouli believes that one can curb the issue by just making a better product.
“It’s not just the problem of my film, it’s not just the problem of film field, it’s the problem of entire humanity, the pandemic. So there is no scope of sitting and crying about what’s going to happen to me or my film. This is the situation; it is what it is, and how do you make the most out of it, how do we overcome the obstacle, and how to make it exciting for the people to visit theaters and watch it again and again. So you have to make your film much better,” he added.
‘RRR’ starring Jr NTR, Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn and Alia Bhatt, will release in January 2022, and will lock horns at the box-office with ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ and ‘Radhe Shyam’.
