Character Development in Film Acting

Ranabali, in 1876,

was a feudal chieftain in Rayalaseema.

A rough man.

Ranabali Vijay— Now, I twirl my mustache one way,

Ranabali twirls it another way.

Yeah, my walk is one way, Ranabali's is another.

Ranabali has a certain look.

I—

No matter how rough you think I am, I speak very slowly. Ranabali speaks

very harshly. Yeah.

So,

that character—designing the character,

becoming him is one process.

You can learn the character's accent, learn the dialect,

but the volume at which he speaks,

the gravitas with which he speaks.

Sometimes, while doing a scene, Rahul would be there and say, "Vijay,

say it like Ranabali." Even if I said it with emotion, yeah,

especially

when they all come, I'd ask something, yeah,

"Where did you all come from—who the hell

are all of you?" It's a simple dialogue.

I'd say, "If you're asking who Ranabali is here,

it's me. Who the hell are all of you?"

Even when I said it with genuine concern and emotion.

Rahul had me do three or four takes for it.

"It has to be like Ranabali. Ranabali wouldn't ask like that."

If Ranabali asks someone, he'd say, "Who the hell do you all think you are?

We don't have that here," in a certain way.

So, designing every aspect of him, from his walk, his

stature,

when he fights.

When I throw a punch, it looks one way, but when Ranabali throws a punch,

it has to look different. So, completely designing that

character takes time, it takes

a director—it takes

complete clarity from the director. What helped was that Rahul had complete clarity.

He did.

First of all, since he's from Rayalaseema, he knows what people in Rayalaseema are like,

how they look, how they speak, how their grandfathers and uncles,

the people in the villages, speak, how they walk.

The first day of the shoot,

we did a scene. That whole day—

It was a single-take shot. We cut it a little and only

kept a little of it.

The first five takes were just spent

fixing Ranabali's walk.

Oh!

Every one of his steps had to land with weight, in a certain manner,

and he doesn't walk normally like us.

So it took about five or six takes to figure that out.

So, designing exactly how Ranabali

speaks with gravitas, how he approaches things,

his accent, how the words come out of his mouth,

his accent, how the words come out of his mouth,

I think this

was something we really had to get right.