Exclusive :‘We picked up the unique pitch of Korean language in Cheppalani Undi’

Newbie Yash Puri is all set to make his debut into the Tollywood film industry with the upcoming film Cheppalani Undi, which will hit the theaters on December 9. The Pioneer connects with the debutant, who takes us through his journey from being a cricketer to making his acting debut, and some insights about the film.

Amartya Smaran

Cheppalani Undi, the 94th film of the long-standing industry giant Super Good films is all set to hit the silver screens on December 9. Helmed by Arun Barathi, the film stars debutant Yash Puri and Stefy Patel in the leading roles while Rajeev Kanakala, Tanikella Bharani, and comedians Sunil, Ali, and Sathya will be seen in other important roles. The film tells the story of an honest journalist named Chandrashekar, who after an incident ends up speaking in an alien language while interviewing an important person in the film.

Will he be able to vent his frustration of not being able to explain his condition? This question takes the narrative forward.In an exclusive one-on-one with The Pioneer, debutant Yash Puri discusses his passion for acting, how he landed the role in Cheppalani Undi, and the many challenges while shooting the film.

The trailer of the film has been creating ripples on social media. With its unique plot, the masses seem to have taken a keen interest in the movie.Commenting on the feedback that the film has been getting, Yash said, “This marks my feature film debut and I am super duper excited. Nervousness was there a week back, but after all the feedback that I’ve been receiving for the film, I am more excited than nervous. We released the trailer on Aditya Music and it hit a million views. Later, the channel was down due to some issues. We released the trailer again through another medium and I was surprised to see that it hit a million within no time.”  

Like most Indians, our young actor  had also aspired to become a cricketer. However, due to different reasons, he couldn’t continue playing the sport further.That doesn’t mean he vaguely stumbled upon the craft of acting. Wonder how? This is what he had to say about it, “I was either on the ground playing cricket or I was in a theatre watching movies. I’ve always been a cinema lover since I can remember, but yes, my first dream was to play for the Indian cricket team. I represented Hyderabad from the age group of under 13 all the way up to under 23. I was a part of the Ranji probables as well, but for certain reasons, I didn’t continue that. While I was recovering from an injury, I stumbled on an acting course online called the Master class by Kevin Spacey. All of sudden, I turned out to be a good student. I was doing all the classwork and I really enjoyed doing it.”

“The moment I was allowed to walk after the injury, I moved to Bombay. I was doing my rehab thinking. I can come back to cricket once I recover completely. At that time, I did two courses, one at Anupam Kher’s actor prepares and one at Barry John acting studio. Surprisingly, I received really good feedback from both teachers. I really enjoyed doing those courses and I felt alive. Soon after the courses, I started giving auditions to become camera friendly and once I landed in Hyderabad, I enrolled myself in Sutradhar agency and Coliseum Productions. There I realised the potential of theatre and down the line, as I kept giving auditions, I landed up on Cheppalani Undi,” added the newbie.

What every actor looks forward to is a role that challenges him/her to the fullest and Yash feels that he’s fortunate to have been given the opportunity to explore the craft with his debut film. “Every script has the potential to let the actor perform, but I will go to the extent of saying that this film pushed me as an actor. You’ll see me speaking an alien language and I had to make my body language a bit louder than usual so that the audience could understand what I was doing. Both from external and internal sources, we received extraordinary feedback. The comedy has really worked out because of the language and the conflict has risen due to it. I am happy to see that people are empathising with the character. What more can I ask for?” commented the debutant.

The peculiar language that the character talks in the film’s trailer has become a talking point amongst filmgoers. Is it gibberish? Does it have any meaning? What is he trying to say? All these questions managed to bring much-needed curiosity right before the release.

Here, our guest takes us through the origins of the alien language, “It is complete gibberish in terms of the words I’m speaking, but we created some specific words. Every language has some words that are always repeating, right? We’ve created some words to get a knack for the language. The rhythm was the more challenging part and therefore we thought this alien language that we were creating should have a rhythm so it feels like a language. Whilst doing that research we found that the Korean dramas were doing really well. Although the Korean language doesn’t share any similarities with the Telugu language, it has a unique pitch to it. So, we picked on it.”

Recalling the time when he first broke into the character, cricketer turned actor enthused, “I spent 20-30 days perfecting the language. The first time I broke into the character was for an emotional scene. You won’t believe it, around 250 people on the set including the DOP started laughing out loud. I was happy that the comedy aspect was working out but I was worried as to how we were going to shoot when everyone was cracking up. I had to speak to all the crew members in that language to get them used to it. It was the most challenging thing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Besides this, we shot the climax in Kashmir. The conditions were really harsh with the snow and the Indian Army helped us out.

However, the fun part was shooting with all the legends like Rajiv Kanakala, Sunil, Ali, and others. It was absolutely surreal and they were so kind and warm to me. They embraced me as if I was their family member.”

Now that the Cheppalani Undi actor has manoeuvred his way through the industry, we asked him if he’d like to give any advice to the young guns out there. “Advice is a really big word”, he said with great humility and concluded, “As a brother and a friend, all I can say is, one must really enjoy being an actor because there are times when one must go through a lot of rejection for different reasons. Aspiring actors should be open to giving auditions and in a city like Hyderabad, there is no shortage of big production houses.

Go to the offices even if there’s no casting call; shamelessly go and stand there because I’ve done all that. One must really work hard and keep all the ego aside while trying to make it in the industry. Above all, work hard with utmost honesty, and don’t forget to enjoy the process.”