“If we both had to collaborate, it had to be special and dramatic, nothing normal and cliched,” actor Rana Daggubati says about sharing the display screen along with his uncle, actor Venkatesh, for the first time. In the internet series Rana Naidu, an adaptation of the American tv series Ray Donovan, Rana performs a Mumbai-based fixer named Rana Naidu who bails movie personalities out of bother; Venkatesh performs his father, Naga Naidu, who spells bother for the household. The series, directed by Karan Anshuman and Suparn Verma, was filmed in Hindi and can stream in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam on Netflix from March 10.
Talking about the drama in Rana Naidu, Venkatesh says, “We do not share a typical father-son relationship in this story wherein I, as a father character, sing songs, raise a child, he gets into trouble and then I have to protect him.” The unpredictable, generally unstable character of Naga Naidu might be not like Venkatesh’s amiable characters in Telugu household dramas. “The younger generation that might have seen me only in dramas such as Drushyam or the comedies F2 and F3 will be surprised at the character’s bold moves.”
Although Venkatesh is desperate to gauge the viewers response to him and Rana coming to blows, he says it took some prodding and convincing to get him on board for the series: “I am glad Rana and Netflix convinced me.”
Collaborations galore
In the final decade, listed below are a few of the collaborations by Venkatesh — Seethamma Vaakitlo Sirimalle Chettu with Mahesh Babu; Masala with Ram Pothineni; Gopala Gopala with Pawan Kalyan; F2 and F3 with Varun Tej; and Venky Mama with Naga Chaitanya.
The actor is additionally part of Salman Khan’s Hindi movie Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan.
Among Rana’s notable collaborations are the Baahubali movies with Prabhas and Bheemla Nayak with Pawan Kalyan.
“The timing was perfect,” Rana displays. “No one knew what we were doing during the pandemic. I liked the story idea and agreed to the project. My dad (producer Suresh Babu) and Venky visited the sets one morning, and my dad told me, ‘Hey, there are a lot of bad people (characters) here’. I told him that this story is about rough and bad characters.”
Rana Daggubati is a fixer for movie celebrities in the internet series ‘Rana Naidu’
| Photo Credit:
Sourabh Paul/Netflix
When requested to play Naga Naidu, Venkatesh sounded the individuals round him about the story and his character and noticed the pleasure amongst the youthful lot. He determined to take a leap of religion. “If I do not take risks, I would not be challenging myself as an actor.”
The trailer exhibits Rana and Venkatesh at one another’s throats, in distinction to the heat camaraderie they share in actual life. Switching to beast mode was straightforward, says Venkatesh. “Since I was doing something different, I wanted to jump in and see how it looks.”
The actors concede that it was straightforward talking the tough traces in Hindi. When they started dubbing in Telugu, it was too near residence and made them uncomfortable. “I asked the directors to tone down some stuff,” provides Venkatesh.
In his profession spanning 37 years, Venkatesh has been predominantly related to feel-good household dramas. Director Sudha Kongara’s Guru, a remake of the Tamil movie Irudhi Suttru, had him enact a tough-as-nails boxing coach, a course of that he had described as “refreshing”, since Sudha nudged him to transcend his consolation zone. Rana Naidu, says Venkatesh, made him push the boundaries additional.
Rana says he was enthused whereas watching Venkatesh on units. “I always wanted him to do something wacky; it was fun to see him playing a mean guy.”
Actors Rana Daggubati and Venkatesh throughout the trailer launch of ‘Rana Naidu’
| Photo Credit:
ANI
Ray Donovan spanned seven seasons and a movie. Karan Anshuman and Suparn Verma adapt the story to the Indian context. The actors state that the familial bonds and the crime explored right here have a unique vitality from the authentic. There is additionally the Hyderabad-Mumbai connection for Rana and Venkatesh characters. “Karan has a way of making the story darker than in the original,” says Rana, and provides that new seasons will roll out after gauging the response to the first one. The series additionally stars Surveen Chawla, Suchitra Pillai, Rajni Basumatary and Gaurav Chopra.
For each the actors, the internet series expertise was a brand new one. Rana admits that it took him a couple of days to orient himself to long-form content material and maintain monitor of the continuity that was required to drive a personality by way of a number of episodes. “There was an abundance of learning for me. Our film-oriented minds envision the story and characters for two to three hours. The range of emotions you get to portray over several episodes is amazing. Rana Naidu is a complex character. For the first 15 days on the sets, I was blank. One night, I was told I will be filming three scenes with an actor and those are from the first, ninth and 10th episodes. I had 54 pages (of the script) with me and I marked the portions where I cross paths with that character, to make it easier.”
Venkatesh says he went with the move and issues fell in place. He requested the makers to let him off recording the dialogues in sync sound as he was not comfortable emoting and talking his traces in Hindi concurrently. “I worked on my expressions. Naga is unbelievable. For example there is a scene where his wife opens the door and when you see him looking at her, you do not know what he is thinking and if you can trust him. There are many facets to this guy, from being humble to messy. Some portions might even make you root for this bad guy.”
Will the uncle and nephew be open to extra collaborations? “Maybe next time we will do a mainstream action drama,” says Venkatesh. Rana chips in, “Or we can keep working on multiple seasons of Rana Naidu.”
(Rana Naidu streams on Netflix on March 10)
