● A Sharadhaa
For Jagapati Babu, evil is a necessity, and being evil is a job. At 54, the actor, who is 120-films -old, has earned fame for playing the hero and villain, which has been applauded in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. Babu, who is shooting in Bengaluru for his third film in Kannada, Vijayaditya, has no qualms, in playing the negative role. According to him, he never chose to play a baddie, but if he doing so brings cheer among the audience, he is more than willing.
“I am an actor and when I came to know that my market as a hero was over, I started taking up a villain’s role. And I have a completely new market,” he says.
After two days of shoot for Nirbhay Chakravarthi's Vijayaditya, in which he again plays a rich businessman, the actor says, “I didn’t know Nirbhay and he came through a friend of mine. But the moment I met him, I connected with him because he was very sincere in his approach and he was sure he wanted only me. I saw the rushes of his work and I realised it is going to be a huge film in Kannada,” he notes and informs that the film has even been compared with Baahubali. “Vijayaditya has been Nirbhay’s baby even before Baahubali which is a national pride and comparing the film with it is a matter of pride in itself. I am confident about his work,” he adds.
The actor, whose connection to Bengaluru is through his aunt who lives in Basaveshwarnagar, states that he particularly liked the personality of the hero, Dhananjay, and enjoyed playing the villain, again.
“The tag of a rich man character continues for me in Vijayaditya too, but the other side of it is enjoyable. I am into sports, painting, antics, which gives a grand look to my character. It is aligned with the hero with whom I have a close interaction. Though we don’t have too many scenes together, the story is completely connected to both of us,” he reveals.
Speaking about his Sandalwood experience, Babu says that Bachchan was his first experience in Kannada and Jaguar will be his second. “Though director A Mahadev is a Telugu director, I am doing the film because I respect
Kumaraswamy and his simplicity. I like his attitude and passion for films,” says the actor.
Currently the actor is busy juggling work in different languages and is finalising on 7 to 8 projects . “I cannot reveal much about my Telugu film. In Tamil, I am working with Vijay and Vishal,” he says disclosing that he has always wanted to play the character of Godfather. “I have actually taken pictures in the Godfather’s look in one of my private shoots. I like the subtle acting. I can kill a person with my eyes, which means I can give a cold look,” he says and smiles.
Jagapati Babu to dub for Spielberg’s English film
About his ambitious outings in the near future, Babu reveals that he is going to lend his voice for a Spielberg film. “Though initially, my voice was rejected, it has become a trademark today. I feel good about it. I will be dubbing in Spielberg’s film Big Friendly Giant, which will be in Telugu and Tamil. When they asked about my remuneration, I just told them that I want a picture with Spielberg,” he says and adds that in many ways, he has been unintentionally following Big B. “I am glad that when it comes to voice, I am compared with Amitabh Bachchan and even Sudeep. My voice was rejected like the former. He went bankrupt like me and then sprang back. I think I took the lead from him,” he chuckles.