Kollywood’s hero Aadhi Pinisetty is enjoying his foray into the Telugu industry. The actor who debuted in Tamil with Mirugam and gained fame as a suave cop in Eeram and a rustic hero in Aravaan has come a long way since then.
After his recent entry into Tollywood with a negative role in the Allu Arjun-starrer Sarrainodu, Aadhi has three more Telugu projects.
Tollywood seems to have welcomed him with open arms. The actor has been signed for a Pawan Kalyan film directed by Trivikram Srinivas, in which he’ll play a business tycoon from Spain. “It’s a very stylish character and I’ll be going to Spain for my portions of the shoot in July,” he says.
After Sarrainodu, Aadhi got several offers to play negative roles in Tollywood, but he is choosy about accepting them. “My role in Sarrainodu was very well received and I started getting similar offers. But I don’t want to be typecast. I decided to do negative roles only if the scope to perform is bigger than what I have done in Sarrainodu. Trivikram’s film will give me that larger canvas to perform, so I accepted that role, which has shades of grey,” says Aadhi.
He is also exploring other roles. The actor has just returned from a 45-day shoot in the US for his film Ninnu Kori, co-starring Nani and Nivetha Pethuraj. “I play a San Francisco-based businessman. The film revolves around the happenings in the life of three people. I get to delve into a very different character,” he says.
Aadhi is also part of a period film called Rangasthalam 1985, directed by Sukumar. He plays Telugu hearththrob Ramcharan’s brother. “Two schedules are over and I’m shooting in Rajamundhry next, in the pristine locales of Papikondallu. It takes four hours for the unit to reach the shooting spot each day. The camerawork is by Ratnavelu. The film is about the bonding of two brothers.”
Aadhi is happy straddling the worlds of Kollywood and Tollywood. “I want to try different kinds of cinema and expand my market as an actor. I want a changeover from playing boy-next-door roles to larger-than-life commercial heroes, and Tollywood has given me that platform,” he says.
His Maragadha Naanayam in Tamil has released in Telugu (Maragathamani), and he’s now getting offers from the Malayalam industry too. “I want to do roles that stick in the audience’s mind after they leave the theatre. I’m listening to Malayalam scripts too, and waiting for the right one,” he says.