October 20, 2012 Y. Sunitha Chowdhary
Sundeep Kishan sounds excited like a school child, in his up and coming Gundello Godari he plays a village youth who indulges in cock fights, wears clothes that he has never worn before and reels of choicest epithets that would put any hardcore villager to shame. This he had to do in both the languages as the movie will have a simultaneous release in Telugu and Tamil. For someone who has lived all his life in Chennai and Hyderabad, the village shoot turned into a fun feast.
"It was the rustic and raw Telugu on one hand and Kanchipuram Tamil on the other. Every actor would like to show off their language and the ease and comfort with which they speak, I guess this is my moment of reckoning. This shoot was followed by the schedule for D For Dhopidi and the hang over of my East Godavari dialect that I used for Gundello Godari was very much felt there. I am a 'taapi mestri' (construction worker) Suri Gaadu and the character is somewhat similar to what Jagapati Babu did in Anthahpuram and Ravi Teja did in Sindhuram.
We lived in the fields for 30 days and as usual I did give a different body language to the character like I do always with all my other films as well. The only difference was I was dressed in lungis, silk shirts, banyans and had to hold a hen in my arms and yes once I had jasmines tied around my wrist. It was new and exciting. The heroes roles in Aadukalam and Paruthiveeran inspired me and I tried to give as much originality as possible. I used to watch such characters in films and always wondered when I would get to do them."
Isn't it a good feeling to be associated with cinema that takes one back to the roots? Sundeep thinks it is a welcome change but adds that it is not entirely a deglamourised story, it is a commercially packaged interesting film with him and Aadhi Pinisetty sharing equal number of fights and dances. There is no scope for heartburn at all.
The actor recollects, "Every evening I would return to the room after the shoot with dust from a rusted bicycle, mud and dust from the location as the character's goal is to own a thousand rupee note. Palakollu is a small village and I was sure people wouldn't recognise me and Lakshmi but hundreds of people flocked to see us and the children would scream dialogues from Prasthanam. That was one thing I was sure about that none would ever care to recollect those particular dialogues. It was a stunning and a wonderful experience.
The people would send us food, fish, prawns, etc., it was a warm feeling and there was so much love. The only aspect that I missed out was on a good theatre. Apart from the commercial success and critical acclaim, I always make a conscious effort to see that people keep a DVD of my films at home."
The movie has music by Ilayaraja and meanwhile Sundeep's A Routine Love Story is also gearing up for release and there is D For Dhopidi and two films in Tamil..Yaaruda Mahesh and Maranthen Mannithen out of which one is a Tamil version of Gundello Godari. If there is one film that people will continue to speak about like Prasthanam it is Gundello Godari he avers.
Finally ask Sundeep if it is a coincidence working for the second time with Raj and DK in D For Dhopidi, who made Shor In The City with him, he replies spontaneously, "It is their first Telugu film and it is like my home production for me. I feel maximum responsible for the film. We share a comfort level and it is nice to have someone who believe in you so much. I play Rajeev Babu who comes from the village to the city to become a hero."
