'Tuck Jagadish' will stream on Amazon Prime from the night of September 9. In this interview, Natural Star Nani talks about the family drama, working with director Shiva Nirvana, his upcoming movies and more.
I am really missing the theatrical release. It's inevitable that we are releasing our movie on OTT.
Coming to how the movie happened, when Shiva Nirvana asked me to listen to a story, I presumed that he would narrate a love story. I was prepared to reject it outright because I didn't want to do a love story at that point in time. Once he started narrating the story, I was sucked into the narration. He narrated the pre-titles segment in which an elder tells the hero that a man shouldn't cry and he shouldn't make a woman cry. I was hooked to his narration.
'Tuck Jagadish' is different from Nirvana's previous movies. He can narrate relationship-based stories with ease. That's why 'TJ' is the right kind of movie for him. Even the names in the movie are very true-to-life. They are rooted names. The title itself has a certain feel.
There is a beautiful scene in the second half where a character asks Jagadish why people call him with the prefix 'Tuck' before his name. It's a touching scene.
Ritu Varma's segments with me are breezy in a very intense movie. Aishwarya Rajesh is my 'Mena kodalu' in the movie. She is Chandramma and how far Jagadish can go for her is very interesting. I don't have many scenes with her.
Bosu (Jagapathi Babu) and Jagadish are the most important characters. Their equations are complex and Nirvana has handled them very well. There is an alcoholic in the story. There is an extremely good-natured person as well. That way, 'TJ' has a wide range of characters. The characterizations are not sketchy here. There definitely are negative characters in the story. Watch them in the movie.
Entertainment is not just comedy. Anything that keeps you engaged for 2.5 hours is entertainment in my opinion. 'Jersey' was a very serious movie. Most of the audience connected with its emotions thoroughly.
'Ante Sundaraniki', to be released next year, is going to be super fun. The audience will not be able to sit in their seats. It will be so much comedic. I have done a range of movies in my career. I do movies regularly and I can try all sorts of movies.
'Shyam Singha Roy', to be released at the end of this year, will be another exciting movie from me. You are going to see a new Nani from now. Regardless of success or failure, I will keep giving my best.
'MCA' is described as a blockbuster and the validation is in terms of the box-office collections. When 'V' was released on Amazon Prime, we received a mail on the fourth day from the streaming giant. They said that the film, on a scale of 10, got 21 points as per them! But since OTT success can't be quantified in the form of collections, I can't call it a success without being asked for evidence. I don't know what to say. 'V' made Prime happy, Dil Raju garu happy. We all celebrated its success. Prime came to me to buy 'Tuck Jagadish'. If 'V' had failed, they wouldn't have done so.
Five to six of my movies are being remade in other languages. I don't think 'TJ' will be remade, though. It's because it's purely a Telugu movie. It's about a Telugu family, it is a Telugu story set in a Telugu village.
A lot of pan-India movies are being made now. I think this won't be the case a couple of years from now. We have access to world content on Netflix and Prime. Even when we don't know the language, we enjoy them with subtitles. People will be watching with subtitles and this will end the lure around pan-India movies. The audience are going to watch movies in the original language any day.
OTT is a great medium to watch all kinds of movies. I am happy that the families will be watching 'TJ' this Ganesh Chaturthi. And I will be back in theaters with 'Shyam Singha Roy' soon. Everyone is upping the game now, thanks to OTT. Creators will have to compete with international content. If you are making a thriller, you have no choice but to make a tight one.
Prime has deleted the Intermission shot in 'TJ'. I am a bit disappointed because the shot was superb. But nobody can help it, considering that it makes no sense to announce Intermission on OTT.
I am producing 'HIT 2' with Adivi Sesh as the hero. 'HIT' will be made as a big franchise in the coming years. 'HIT 3' will be much much bigger than 'HIT 2'. Seventy percent of the shoot of 'HIT 2' is over. 'Meet Cute' will release directly on OTT. Since my sister is directing it, it's very special. I never knew that she would write such a beautiful story.
