2013 proved lucky for the actor as his recent success at the box-office has been acknowledged by the industry. “It has not only proved lucky for me but also for the entire Kannada film industry. What started with Charminar’s success continued with a series of films that turned out to be run away hits,” said Prem.
Basking in the success of Charminar, Prem has signed another movie with director R Chandru titled Male. “I will start shooting for Male only after Chandru completes shooting for Brahma with Upendra. I have another project with young director Preetham Gubbi which will go on floors soon,” he said.
Prem’s other prestigious projects which are ready for release are Shatru and Chandra. The former being a bilingual project (Tamil and Kannada) is creating equal curiosity among the audience even before its release.
“Chandra is based on a true story with a royal backdrop dealing with the younger generation,” said Prem who feels that this film will give him a grand entry into Kollywood.
“The film also has well known actress Shriya Saran. Basically a family entertainer, I am confident that the film will stand out and I am sure to get more offers. Apart from this, Charminar was watched by director, Lingusamy of Paiya fame and he specially liked my performance. I am happy that my films are being appreciated by other language directors too,” he said.
As for his other film, Shatru, which is all ready for release, the producer is waiting for elections to get over. " At present, we are seeing a slew of Kannada films being released every week which I feel is a bad sign,” he said.
Before Charminar, Prem had worked in a series of films which failed at the box office. “I made the mistake of choosing bad teams to work with. Sometimes if the
subject was good, the direction used to go wrong. Otherwise, there was no proper publicity. At that time, I could not get the kind of acceptance that as actors, we generally look forward to,” said Prem who stressed that he had become choosy now. “I am choosy not in terms of cutting down on films. In fact, I will be very specific with whom I should work with. That’s why I chose directors like Chandru and Preetham Gubbi. From now on, my basic judgement on whether I should be part of a film or not will mainly depend on script, team, director and my character,” he added.
After been ignored for a couple of years, people have finally embraced him. Now breaking into the big league, where does the actor see himself amongst his peers? “I am very happy that I have gained popularity with my recent films. In spite of my mistakes, my audience did not let me down and that’s what mattered to me. I am currently enjoying my journey in the industry but I have a lot more to achieve,” he said.
Have you become a game-changer of sorts or you mostly rely on the director’s vision? “Director is meant to be the captain of the film. We are an actor because of the director. How we depend on the director is important but how they blend us to into their movies is still more important,” he said.