Actress Keerthy Suresh starrer Dasara is all set to hit the theaters on March 30. Ahead of the film’s release, Keerthy shares some interesting insights from the film.
The name Keethy Suresh is synonymous with great acting. Her portrayal of yesteryear actress Savitri in Nag Ashwin’s Mahanati(2018) is one of the most effective performances that the Telugu audiences got to witness on the silver screen in a long time. Nenu Sailaja marks Keerthy’s debut in Tollywood.The film was considered to be the first blockbuster of 2016 and thus began her successful journey in T’wood. She starred opposite superstar Mahesh Babu in Sarkaru Vaari Paata (2022), which was a huge blockbuster.
Now, after a short sweet break, Keerthy is ready to set the screens ablaze with Srikanth Odela’s Dasara starring opposite Nani.
The film is set in Singareni coal mines near Godavarikhani and depicts the lives of Dharani and Vennela who reside in the vicinities of the rural Telangana region. In her recent interaction with the media, the actress said everybody will be able to connect to her character in Dasara. The film is produced by Sudhakar Cherukuri under Sri Lakshmi Venkateswara Cinemas banner and is directed by debutant Srikanth Odela. The film will have a simultaneous release in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi languages on March 30th.
The Mahanati actress says she donned a challenging character in Dasara. The director of the film gave her a four hour narration and asked her to lose around 12kgs. However, Keerthy informed the director that she’s already signed up for different films and wouldn’t want the continuity of other characters to go for a toss. All told, she lost around 3 kgs to play the part.
“It used to take a few hours even for applying and removing make-up,” recalls Keerthy talking about the many challenges she had to endure while filming. “We shot in a rustic background like dust and coal. It was initially difficult to play a character who speaks Telangana dialect. But I got used to it after a while. My character’s name is Vennela. The character Vennela connects to everyone.”
Now that the film is set in a rural backdrop, it is a necessity that characters speak in the native dialect. In one of her recent interviews, she admitted to having brought in a translator during the narration because she did not understand the slang. From not understanding the slang to dubbing for her part, she’s come a long way, “Director Srikanth Odela’s associate Srinath taught me the Telangana dialect. He is well versed with the accent. There is also a professor who helped me. A lot of small details have also been added. I dubbed for Dasara. Usually, I take two or three days for dubbing. But Dasara took five or six days.”
She further adds, “Director Srikanth Odela has written this story brilliantly. He has a lot of clarity about what character should be. The director thinks the character and the story in one metre. After understanding that metre, I think of how I want to do it and what the director wants. We understood that and worked on how to build the character.”
There is a feel associated with some films. “Even after finishing the movie, we feel an emotional connection with it. It happened for Mahanati previously and now I felt the same for Dasara,” according to the Good Luck Sakhi actress.
The songs of the film are doing extremely well on all major streaming platforms.Chamkeela Angeelesi is one song in particular that’s mesmerised the audience to an extent where thousands of influencers from across India are churning out reels on Instagram. Speaking of whether she anticipated the song to skyrocket the way it did, she said when she heard the song for the first time, she thought it’d be used in all weddings.
“The song has that vibe,” enthuses the Mahanati star. “The lyrics are very beautiful. We thought it would be a big hit. It was a bigger success than we expected.”
Dasara is truly Pan-Indian in nature, but the leading man, Nani doesn’t really like the word as much. However, we must say that the film has the potential to hit it out of the park for it’s deeply rooted in its culture. “Now that Dasara is releasing pan-India, we have to see if I will get strong characters,” shares the Dasara actress hinting at whether she’d be interested to star in B’wood films. “I like doing Bollywood. But first there should be good characters and stories.”
