Ahead of the release of his film Bachchalamalli, Allari Naresh talks about his upcoming film, challenges, about comedy films, his father and more
Allari Naresh is known for his comedy films, but in recent years, he has been attempting to do more serious films like Naandhi, Ugram and Itlu Maredumilli Prajaneekam. Now, he is set to release another serious film, Bachchalamalli, in which he plays a raw and rustic character. Subbu Mangadevi is the director.
“Two years ago, director Subbu approached me and narrated this story. Generally, I didn’t ask the director which genre the story was based on, because many approached me with those kinds of subjects. But Subbu came with a different story, and when he narrated it to me, I felt that this film was definitely something I wanted to do, because the character has all emotions. As an actor, this will definitely get me a good name,” said Allari Naresh about this film and how it started.
The actor felt that audiences were also now watching content-based films, so he agreed to do this one. “He approached me when I was shooting for Maredumillu, so the same producer, Razesh Danda, inquired about this story, and I asked Subbu to narrate the story to him as well,” said Allari Naresh.
Razesh also liked the story and told Naresh that he would produce the film. The actor said that he did Gamyam a long time ago, and people still remember his role as Gali Seenu from the film. “Now, I am confident that people will remember this Bachchalamalli role for a longer time,” said Naresh.
He added that he came out of his comfort zone and did this film. “I tried something different and new. This film is not an autobiography. But there is a person called ‘Bachchalamalli’ and the director has taken a few incidents from his life as inspiration and made a complete fiction story,” said the actor. Interestingly, the actor also met the real-life ‘Bachchalamalli’ while shooting this film at Tuni. “My makeup man showed me that it was ‘Bachchalamalli’. But I imagined him differently – strong, very tall and with a different face. But he is completely opposite to my thoughts – skinny, with average height, but his voice is very strong. He is now a bit aged, so I met him,” said Naresh. He added that he was surprised after seeing him. “When I saw his personality, I doubted that this person would quarrel with everyone? But he is the real Bachchalamalli,” said Allari Naresh.
The challenging part about this film is doing something new. “The director wants the stupidity in my face when I walk, asking me to cry something new, which is my challenge. When I do something, the director compares it with my old films, so he asked me to do something new,” said Naresh.
He added that he put his hard work into this film. “After five minutes of the start of the film, you will definitely be immersed in the Bachchalamalli world,” said the actor. For the look also, they tried different looks. “It’s another big challenge, because the story happened in the 90s in a rural area. The character is not that neat, so we have tried different looks, and finally come to this one,” he said.
He added that in this film, every scene comes out realistic. “Even the action scenes were designed more in a realistic way. I beat up goons and they too beat me; it’s not like the regular commercial film where the protagonist hits a goon, and he goes to a distance and hits a lorry. Those kinds of action scenes are not in this film,” said Naresh.
For another question, he said he had doubts when he did Naandhi about whether people would believe him or not. “I used to be known more for comedy roles and suddenly if I hit goons, I had doubts about whether the audience would believe it or not. But luckily, I started with a couple of action scenes in Naandhi and then a few more in Ugram and slowly I started doing action scenes because people liked it,” he said. He added that these days, many films forcefully put action scenes to appeal to the North (Hindi) audience. “In this film, we didn’t put any extra action scenes, as those come as part of the story,” he said.
The actor is now confident to do serious films and also action films. “Slowly I am coming out of my comfort zone to do these kinds of films. But at the same time, I won’t leave comedy, because it is my home ground, and I am comfortable doing it,” said Naresh.
He added that when he is doing comedy, people ask him to do serious films and vice versa, they are asking for comedy films.
