With more than 95 films under his belt, Akkineni Nagarjuna knows the industry inside-out, and yet he has the desire to keep learning and the ambition to do things he has always dreamt of.
If he appealed to the mass audience with Soggade Chinni Nayana, Nag says a new chapter in his illustrious career will open up with Oopiri.
"Oopiri will be a life-changing film for me. There are films that touch your heart, stories that touch you. Oopiri is one of them. When I was first offered this film, I thought it would be a feather in my cap. I put on my cap this Sankranthi (with Soggade..) and now I will put the feather in it," expressed a delighted Nagarjuna.
Nag is in the stage of his career where he doesn't know how many films he would do from here on, but is intent on making every film count. When asked if he would score a century (100 films), Nag quipped, "I will make the century very easily, that's not a concern. But what I really want to do, is to do really good cinema. Like Yuvraj Singh, I want to hit every movie for a six!"
Despite being in the industry for three decades, Nagarjuna has dubbed in Tamil for the first time in Oopiri's Tamil version Thozha. His co-stars Karthi and Tamannaah have also dubbed their own voice for the Telugu version.
"We were all surprised to see how fluently Karthi spoke in Telugu. He made me feel rather embarrassed, cause I was struggling a bit with my Tamil lines, while he would say all his words in Telugu in one take," Nag candidly informed.
Karthi, on his part, is making his first full-fledged Telugu debut with Oopiri and says he couldn't have asked for a better entry into the industry.
"The whole film was like a dream, from which you never want to wake up. There are some movies which gives you fame, some which give you success but Oopiri is a film that will give you respect," Karthi observed.
Stressing that the film is only an adaptation of French flick The Intouchables, the actor said, "Around 40-50 new scenes were shot for this movie. We have only taken the soul from Intouchables and made it a product that the south audience can relate to," Karthi informed.
Tamannaah, who plays the bridge between both lead actors, said it was one of her most memorable films till date.
"I enjoyed every single scene in the film. And I'm not saying this just because it's the right thing to say in a press meet. I genuinely enjoyed the film very much, and that is probably why I wanted to dub for it so badly," she expressed.
The Tamil-Telugu bilingual is produced by Prasad V Potluri (PVP), who will be foraying into Africa for the first time. "I've always believed in the term 'Pushing the envelope', and that's exactly what we've done with Oopiri. Apart from many overseas countries, we will be releasing the film in Botswana. Oopiri will also release in 90 AMC theatres in the US, which is a big deal," PVP said.
Directed by Vamsi Paidipally, Oopiri will hit screens on March 25.