Nagarjuna Interview: 'We Need To Make More Films That Are Rooted In Our Indian Culture'

Nagarjuna Akkineni laughs when one mentions the magical process of movie-making; how an idea fleshes out into a script, which then transforms into giant film sets as hundreds come together to make something that the audience may or may not like. "But it is truly beautiful, I cannot imagine my life without the movies," the superstar tells The Hollywood Reporter India as he talks about all things cinema from... a film set.

The two-time National Award-winning actor, who has been in the industry for over 40 years, is currently elated as his Annapurna Studios recently launched the country's first Dolby-certified postproduction facility for cinema and home.

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The grand unveiling, held in Hyderabad last week, was done by filmmaker SS Rajamouli, whose Academy Award-winning RRR (2022) was the first-ever Indian film to release in Dolby Cinema.

In an interview with THR India, Nagarjuna talks about the vision of his father — the legendary Akkineni Nageswara Rao — who played a pivotal role in the relocation of the Telugu film industry from Chennai to Hyderabad, and what Indian filmmakers need to keep in mind the most today.

Edited excerpts:

Nagarjuna at the launch in Hyderabad.

How do you feel about this collaboration between Annapurna Studios and Dolby?

Dolby represents the peak standard in cinema now; they are our present and future. I am excited about cinema in this format, because I saw the RRR Dolby trailer, and the difference is glaring. I also saw a version of Pushpa 2, which not many have seen because it hasn't been exhibited in Dolby cinemas in India yet. But I saw it at our facility because they graded international print.

Everything becomes clearer, sharper, and deeper. The colours start popping out and everything becomes very real. It is the difference I felt when I switched to DVDs after VCR. Even an ordinary scene becomes extraordinary.

SS Rajamouli had said that during RRR, they had to travel to Germany to grade the film in Dolby Vision, a format with which he couldn't experience his own film in India. How do you look at his vision as a filmmaker?

He puts so much effort into his films. He knew RRR would release on all the international screens, especially in North America, Australia, and Europe. He had seen Avatar 2, and the Mission: Impossible films, which were graded on Dolby, so it was by default that he wanted to give the best for his film as well.

Filmmaker SS Rajamouli at the launch.

This is also the 50th year of Annapurna Studios; what is the goal now?

Since day one, the studio has walked on uncharted territory; right from the beginning when it moved to Hyderabad 50 years ago, and everyone questioned my father's decision to move from Chennai, which was the capital of cinema in the South. Since then, it has been heralding path-breaking stuff in cinema and we have tried to provide new technology to our filmmakers. This family has been into films for 85 years now, and we have all seen it grow and evolve.

The first film to be made in the studio was Secretary (1976), starring your father Nageswara Rao and that helped Hyderabad become the centre for Telugu films...

My father was a visionary. I don't know what got into him then; I was very young, but he put all that he had earned into this studio. He just wanted this to be his legacy. We also have a film and media college, and a lot of the students have gone on to make their own films and now work in various capacities in filmmaking.

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Can you imagine your life without movies?

I can't! Imagine the times of COVID-19 without movies or entertainment. What would have happened? People would have gone a bit crazy. Movies take you to a different zone, and you forget what is happening around you.

In recent history, some say the '90s was a great decade for cinema, while others feel it was the 2000s when the multiplex era changed storytelling. You have worked through all these phases — what does the current decade signify?

It is a fantastic time for the movies because OTT platforms have come out now. It is also a good time for new talents and storytelling. You can go anywhere you like and you will find an audience. You can watch a film in a foreign language and also connect with it. This has been happening a lot post-pandemic.

Look what happened to Indian cinema, and specifically Telugu cinema; it has gone all over the world. It is not only entertaining the masses in India, but it is entertaining the masses elsewhere also. I am also watching Mexican, Korean, and South American films here and I am absolutely enjoying them. It truly is a fantastic time for filmmaking.

Pushpa 2 is setting records in Hindi, Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan did good business in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and SS Rajamouli has gone global. What is something that the Indian film industry must keep in mind now?

Unity and collective voices are all words that are easier said than done. What I feel the Indian filmmakers need to do is to be proud of the Indian culture, be rooted in it, and not try to ape some other culture that is alien to us. I think that's all we need to do, and then we will go places because we have so many stories to be told here.