Discussion on Film Character Development

Is this story a hero's journey, or about the British

plundering a commoner?

How would you describe it?

Of the countless ordinary people plundered by the British,

you could call it a hero's journey that began for their sake.

Mm.

Yeah.

Okay, so...

After deciding on the character Rana Bali...

When choosing Vijay, had you thought of it before or after?

At what moment did you feel he was the one?

Was it while he was acting, or before Vijay, was there anyone other than Vijay

whose name came to mind?

When I thought of this character, there was one and only Vijay Deverakonda.

I didn't think of anyone else.

When I did the first-look test with Vijay, for the first time...

That moustache, that hairstyle, and that costume...

The cutout we made of him holding a sword

We settled it when we did the first stills, so there was no more doubt about the character.

No.

Mm.

It felt like there was no turning back.

Okay, and even now, when I enter the office,

I can see all the pictures, the old ones and

the current ones. So, you did those look tests for a lot of people—

Did you do them for everyone?

Yes.

Not just the main leads?

No, we did them for everyone, even for the crowd.

Oh!

Even the background crowd.

Mm.

The farming crowd, the British crowd, including all kinds of crowds, we did look tests for

around 30 or 40 people, easily.

Oh my God!

For those people, two or three times, we made corrections again,

and rechecked

again.

Mm.

Before going to the sets, we checked as much as possible.

Mm, and did you conduct these look tests with these very people?

Actually, when we went into that field and met all of them, and

Their similarities, and an exact match for them

Casting these people accordingly was also the biggest task, right?

Correct.

So, what kind of homework did that require?

Casting is one of the biggest challenges and also

one of the successful aspects of this film, and I am very proud of the cast of

this film. They fit together so wonderfully, whether it was

the Indian crowd,

Indian casting, or foreign casting.

Uh…

We didn't leave out even the smallest character.

Even if they had just one or two dialogues, they had to be

selected beforehand, auditioned, their dialogue delivery checked, costume checked,

look test and makeup test done. Only after everything was done could they come on set.

So…

It was very extensive.

It was a long process.

One year of pre-production. Yeah, almost one year, very detailed pre-

We handled production.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

So, was the character Ranabali entirely designed by you,

or was he inspired by someone else?

There was inspiration. As I said, a lot of it came from the tales of Burrakatha heroes.

Whenever

I read those stories, about a man wielding a sword and riding a horse,

traveling through many villages, there would be hero stones in those villages.

They are called hero stones. They commemorate heroes who fought for—

to protect those villages, as a memorial to them,

they would carve and erect hero stones as a— as a memorial.

They would.

I found it very interesting when I saw them in a few villages.

Even once, when I went to a museum in Kurnool, I saw a

photo of a hero and drew from it.

Mm-hmm.

An ashvaroodha warrior means a hero who rides on horseback.

So, if we tell the story of such a hero, they are real heroes, right?

Rather than something fictional, someone who truly fought for the people

the desire to tell the story of a village hero inspired Ranabali.

Hmm.