Rana Daggubati reveals if film industry has ‘fixers’, says it was bliss to watch uncle Venkatesh’s ‘wild’ avatar in Rana Naidu

The actor further shared that they were at the point in their lives, where they were trying to ‘find something new’. He said that as actors, when someone like Venkatesh, who has been doing a specific kind of genre for 35-40 years, there’s a desire to do something new and ‘reinvent himself and the image that he has built over the years’. Rana added, “It was also an opportunity to work with different filmmakers and move out of his comfort zone.”

But what was about Rana Naidu that clicked with him. He replied, “The fact that at the core of whatever crime story we are telling, it’s also a huge family drama. The show is about a family not seen before. Everyone is having a problem with everyone, and it’s dysfunctional to another level. Yet they are all trying to keep it together in their own way. I think that’s what really excited me at first about it.”

Elaborating on the dynamics between him and his uncle on set, Rana Daggubati said, “Given the nature of the show, we were consistently on the move. There was so much madness that entails the scene, also because it comes from moments of life. You know about those moments but have never seen them. It was just crazy. I think everyone was with it, with the characters. And unlike feature films, which is a much shorter emotional drive, this is… there’s deeper relationships with many people. As soon as we understood that in early readings… when we got on set, we were totally in those characters.”

However, he did confess that it was actually tougher to move out of this dark character as this was so ‘real to life’. Given the character is also named after him, he said it does take a toll. “You know there is some kind of cloudiness of this character that comes when you make decisions in life. But you realise it after you have done it,” he laughed.

Talking about his uncle Venkatesh again and seeing him shed his image, Rana Daggubati said, “Apart from being his nephew, I am also his huge fan. I have watched his films closely over the years. As a fan, as a viewer, I also wanted him to do something new. There’s an image that he’s built that’s so strong. We know that this is the kind of film he’ll do, this kind of audience will come, it will do certain numbers. And thus it was bliss to watch him in Rana Naidu. It will show a different version of him.. that’s wild. It’s also hard because people have seen him in a certain way for so many years. This is a new leap and thus very exciting, hope everyone likes it.”

We also asked Rana Daggubati if there are any ‘fixers’ in the film industry as shown in the web series. “Now we are in a corporate India but there have been fixers on every leg of the journey all these years. You would need them to fix or get X and Y. With crime, laws, and politics so closely related, you do need them in every degree. They are called by many other things, be it jugaadu or power players,” he replied.

As readers might know, the Telugu superstar’s grandfather is named Rama Naidu. As we wondered if that had any connection to the show’s title, Rana laughed, “No, no, it’s nothing to do with my grandfather. Honestly, for the longest time, I thought it was the working title. It usually happens with me in films that characters are initially named Rana but changed later. It did come as a surprise and on the trailer launch day, it finally hit.. that it was my name.”

Rana Naidu is streaming on Netflix.