Kushi director Shiva Nirvana on Vijay Deverakonda: ‘A brilliant actor who knows exactly what he is doing’

“He’s a brilliant actor and very natural. His performance is something very different. I would say he is a very rare artiste. His timing, how he understands a scene, his common sense and how he incorporates human behaviour very well into the character are things that have left me in awe of him,” Nirvana said in an exclusive conversation with indianexpress.com.

Mostly known for his angry-young-man and eccentric characters such as the ones he played in Arjun Reddy (2017), NOTA (2018), Dear Comrade (2019) and World Famous Lover (2020), Deverakonda also grabbed eyeballs playing boy-next-door characters such as Prashanth in Pelli Choopulu (2016) and Vijay Govind in Geetha Govindam (2018).

“I know Vijay since his Arjun Reddy days. We met a lot of times before starting Kushi and discussed doing the film one day. Whenever we sat down for a conversation, his appearance, and the way he talks, it all impressed me. I feel that there is a natural vibe on Vijay’s face all the time. He can attract people effortlessly,” Shiva Nirvana said.

Talking about Vijay Deverakonda’s character in Kushi, he said, “It is this effortlessness in him that inspired me to cast him in this movie. Vijay plays the character of a very energetic, confident, happy-go-lucky young guy. As soon as I began contemplating casting Vijay in the film, I realised that his being there would make a lot of difference. People will love him and the character because there is that much connection between the two.”

“Apart from all these factors and features, the one thing that I find most amazing about him is that he is very unique. He knows exactly what he is doing, both in films and outside. He is never fake or pretentious. If he wants to say something, he will. If he wants to enjoy something, he will. If he wants to ask you something to your face, he will. Even during the making of the film, he knows what he is doing. So while we are discussing stories or songs, he gets what we need naturally,” Nirvana added.