Meet the palmist!
Prabhas talks about being known as a Baahubali star, romancing Bollywood beauties on-screen, and more
South superstar Prabhas is making waves across the country with his latest release Radhe Shyam. He plays a palmist in the film. Recently, post its screening; The Free Press Journal caught up with him for an exclusive tête-à-tête. Excerpts:
You are known as the Baahubali star even after
Saaho and Radhe Shyam. How does that feel?
I got lucky with Baahubali, and my fans gave me a lot of responsibility to prove to them each time. I want to do commercial films but different things. It is very easy for me to do an action film since it’s a ritual, but I have to entertain audiences in different ways.
Go on…
Baahubali gave me so many things that I won’t mind if people call me a Baahubali star for the rest of my life. The issue is the expectations set after Baahubali. There’s definitely some kind of pressure as the whole country starts recognising you and not just one state.
Radhe Shyam is an out and out romantic film. Were you under pressure to break your action star image?
Radhe Shyam is a romantic film, but it has a lot of twists and turns and action as you saw the film. We didn’t have fights in it but had chases. It had all the commercial aspects.
Your next two films, Adipurush and Nag Ashwin’s next, also have huge budgets. Do you feel stressed?
It is better to do a lesser budget film since if it gets a good opening, it’s easier to recover. If the budgets are high, the stress also goes bigger. It happened with Baahubali. We wanted Hindi audiences also to watch it. In terms of scale, I don’t want to do films that are only big budgeted. I am planning to do a horror-comedy film. I might do an art film someday, but I am not ready yet.
Like how Aamir Khan did Dhobi Ghat, Shah Rukh Khan did Dear Zindagi. Is that a possibility with you too?
Filmmakers and audiences both want me in larger than life roles, but after every two to three big films, I want to do a small film.
How does it feel to romance Bollywood beauties like Shraddha Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, and Kriti Sanon in your films?
I was so shy that my friends and I never thought that I would become an actor someday. It’s my good fortune that I get to be paired opposite such beautiful women in films (laughs).
Baahubali, Radhe Shyam took time to shoot and release. How did you hold your characters for such a long time?
Baahubali wasn’t that hard to shoot since I was shooting only one film at that time, and I never had any other film during the whole shoot.