Young actor Sumanth Shailendra is confident of his third outing, Tirupathi Express, which also happens to be his first remake movie. “I have positive vibes about this film because it is the first time I’ve attempted to be a part of an out and out comedy film, with little elements of love and action. Secondly, a few close relatives, who have watched glimpses of Tirupathi Express, have given positive reviews of what they’ve seen so far. My fingers are crossed as the film sets to release this week,” he says.
Sumanth informs us that, in order to get his comic timing right, he took help from comedians like Sadhu Kokila and Bullet Prakash. “I feel comic timing is very important. So I went to Sadhu, who is like a mentor to me. I was also sure that I wanted to learn from Sadhu, but not follow him. If I did, I would only be a copy,” he says.
Sumanth learnt for months to get his act together because he realised that dialogues alone don’t make people laugh. Comedy is much more than mere words.
As the title Tirupathi Express suggests, most of the shooting for the film was done within trains.
And Sumanth admits, that it was extremely difficult for himself and Kriti Kharbanda, the heroine of the film to act in a running train. “We are not used to catching trains as much. It was more challenging for Kriti who had to do the takes while she was wearing her heels. It was also fun going in and out of different trains, a number of times,” he says.
Though everything is going right for Sumanth, it is too early for the actor to gauge his position in the industry.
“I am not exaggerating but I currently have at least 20 good offers in my hand. I can say the number is very less because I have producers and directors who visit our office with their stories daily. What was interesting to know was that many of them actually came with their scripts after just watching the songs of Tirupathi Express,” he exclaims. The actor is confused as to what movies to pick, but is right now only focussed on Tirupathi Express.
Sumanth also shared a shocking incident that took place while shooting for the film. “There was a major accident, and my life along with the cameraperson’s, was at stake, if one of the crew members wouldn’t have taken instant reaction,” he says.
“We weren’t able to get the right shot because we had to act and deliver dialogues while driving a car and we couldn’t concentrate on the road completely,” narrates Sumanth. An Innova car was attached to the car on the move, to shoot the scene.
At one point, turning the car became difficult. “So we detached the car and when we did, it lost control, even though we had around 20 people around on the sets. The car ran over a person from the crew, and then the vehicle ended up on the footpath. The person in spite of the injury called immediately and alerted us. If he had not called us, our lives would have been in danger,” says Sumanth.
He then brought the incident to the notice of his father Shailendra Babu, the producer of the film and they got the crew person admitted to the hospital. “Later my father took care of the expenses for nearly a month.” he reveals.
The film hitting theatres this weekend, is directed by P Kumar.