King Steps Out of Comfort Zone

Akkineni Nagarjuna speaks about playing a wheelchair-bound billionaire in upcoming bilingual Oopiri.

King Akkineni Nagarjuna is back in business and is ruling the roost in Tollywood like never before. After brushing aside heavy competition during Sankranthi with a blockbuster film Soggade Chinni Naayana, Nag has decided to seek satisfaction as an actor and has now trained his guns on upcoming film Oopiri.

An adaptation of French film The Intouchables, Oopiri sees Nagarjuna play the role of Quadriplegic.

"Oopiri is one of the most difficult films in my career. It's something that is really close to my heart as it emotionally drew a lot from me, since I'm confined to a wheelchair throughout. In fact, a special assistant was appointed just to check my movements, considering I play a paralysed character," Nag explained.

Nag's younger son Akhil had said during the trailer launch of Oopiri that he and his brother Chaitanya were reluctant to see his father in a wheelchair but the superstar insisted on playing the role in its most natural form.

"Even today, they aren't happy to see me as a handicapped person but I convinced them that it was just a role. Initially when the director (Vamsi Paidipally) approached me with the script, he had included a flashback sequence, which I refused to do. I felt it was forced and I told him I want to be on the wheelchair throughout. He was happy too, so we decided to scrap the flashback," informs the 56-year-old.

"The best part of the film is that there's no melodrama or unnecessary content attached to it," he adds, gleefully.

Apart from stepping out of his comfort zone to play a handicapped person, Nag also went the extra mile and dubbed for the film's Tamil version, Thozha.

"It was Karthi's idea that I should dub for it. It took much longer than the Telugu version, since I'm not very comfortable with the language, but in the end I managed to do it," Nag says, with a sense of pride.

Up next, he will do a film with veteran filmmaker Raghavendra Rao. "The team is on the lookout for nice locations for shoot. We start filming in May," he signs off.

Produced by PVP cinemas, Oopiri also features Tamannaah and is slated to release on March 25.