I get tensed prior to my film’s release, but this time, I’m struggling to keep calm. My film is releasing in places that I’ve never heard about and I am eager to see how the audiences are going to react to what we have made. I’m freaking out right now,” Nikhil says, referring to his upcoming revenge drama Keshava.
Directed by Sudheer Varma, the film is a revenge drama about a Brahmin boy, who suffers from a rare heart condition - Dextrocardia - due to which he has to keep his emotions under control to stay alive.
Ask him what led him to choose this script, Nikhil says, “I get bored of repeating what I’ve done in the past. I haven’t done an action film in my career. I would say Keshava is Sudheer Varma’s take on the action genre and I’m happy to be part of it.
We have had quite a few revenge dramas in Telugu - right from Gangleader to Simhadri - and a lot of them have become cult classics. Keshava has a modern touch to it and a little different from what the audiences have seen so far.”
His co-star Ritu Varma, who’s teaming up with Nikhil for the first time, is all praise for Sudheer Varma too. “I have been wanting to work with Sudheer ever since I saw Swamy Ra Ra. I loved the way he made that film, and even for Keshava, Sudheer shot the film in quite a few live locations to bring an authentic feel to the story,” Ritu says, adding, “In the film, I’m not only the lead character’s love interest, but also play an important role in his journey. After Pellichoopulu, I was eager to do something which was set in a different space and Keshava was perfect in that sense.”
Interestingly, both Nikhil and Ritu aver that Sudheer Varma has changed the whole look and feel of the film during post-production. “I was quite shocked when I saw the final cut.
There are films which get better during post-production because of the way it’s edited and background score is used. Keshava is one such film. I knew the basic plot of the film and what’s going on, but when I saw it during dubbing, a lot of things had changed.
Only Sudheer knows what we have done,” Nikhil laughs. Ritu agrees with her co-star and says that even during the film’s shoot, she had a positive feeling that they were making something truly different.
“I didn’t realise how intense the film was until I began dubbing for the film. Sudheer makes it easy for everyone on the sets, but there’s a whole lot of stuff which went into making Keshava. Nikhil has delivered a brilliant performance,” she adds.
In the past, Nikhil and Sudheer Varma had worked together for Swamy Ra Ra, which was a major turning point in their respective careers. Having known each other for a long time now, Nikhil says that he understands Sudheer so well that they trust each other blindly. “It’s almost as if I’m married to him (laughs). He delivers beyond your expectations if you let him have his way.
I could see that he was under immense pressure to deliver a hit and I saw a new Sudheer who was a lot more focused. We wanted an authentic and realistic feel to the film and a lot of it was shot in guerrilla style. A lot of times, we didn’t even have the time to see the shot in the monitor. It was quite an interesting experience,” the actor reveals.
The making of Keshava might have been a challenging experience; however, when Nikhil is around, Ritu says, it’s hard to get bored or feel tired even for a minute.
“He’s so enthusiastic about everything under the Sun. He has a child-like energy and kept sharing tales about his life. It was fun working with such a young team where everyone was focused to make a good film, and at the same time, be chilled out,” Ritu says.