‘You can’t compare southern films with the rest, they are bigger’

Actor Sudhanshu Pandey has a reason to rejoice as he is all set to appear in 2.0 — one of the most awaited films of this year, starring Rajinikanth. Pandey is playing one of the negative characters in the movie. On how the film came his way, he tells us, “I got a call from director Shankar’s office in Chennai. Fortunately for me, I have done a couple of films. My first film in Tamil was Billa 2 (2012). I played the main villain in that. Because I started on such a good note in Tamil cinema, I sort of got noticed by the good people there.”

The actor, who has starred in films such as Singh is Kiing (2008), Singham (2011) and Murder 2 (2011), also doesn’t understand why southern films are referred to as regional films. “There’s nothing ‘regional’ about southern cinema. The kind of releases that they do and the audiences that they have across the globe, the money and the revenue generation is huge in their films. You can’t even compare it. It’s bigger and more global than Bollywood at the moment,” says Sudhanshu, who is busy with a couple of films and a web series currently.

Akshay Kumar, who is the antagonist in 2.0, is someone Sudhanshu shares a great rapport with. “Akshay gave me my first film, Khiladi 420 (2000), in which I played the parallel lead to him. I have known him for a long time. He’s not somebody who I look at as a big star, but a brother. I always speak to him in Punjabi. That’s the equation we have,” he says.

There’s nothing ‘regional’ about southern cinema. The kind of releases that they do, the audiences that they have across the globe, the money and the revenue generation, is huge.

SUDHANSHU PANDEY ACTOR

Sudhanshu Pandey will be seen in 2.0