Varun Tej has played a comical character alongside Venkatesh in 'F3'. In this interview, the Mega Prince talks about the film, working with Venkatesh and Anil Ravipudi, the failure of 'Ghani', his upcoming project, and more.
'Ghani' was in the making for three years. We watched it on repeat and might have lost the ability to judge it rationally for the same reason. When the film didn't do well, I felt I should issue a statement admitting to delivering a flop.
Comedy is Anil Ravipudi's strength. 'F3' is his forte. When 'F2' became a hit, a wish to make a sequel turned out to be a natural consequence.
Comedy is very hard to pull off. I have a stammering problem in the film. It was a trait that the director added to make the character more interesting. Venkatesh garu's character suffers from night-blindness. Imagine the comic potential when he and a stammerer end up sharing the same space on a night!
I had my apprehensions before I embarked on 'F3'. But after the director said that he was satisfied after Day One of shoot, I was at ease with the character. From Day Two, I was not nervous as the movie started coming out well. This is an out-and-out comedy wherein you will find various genres of humour, from slapstick to natural to dialogue-oriented.
People are asking me how I could pull off the stammering. With Anil Ravipudi, it is easy for the actors. He emotes everything.
Every single major character in 'F3' is money-oriented. Greed runs through them all! Prior to 'F3', 'F2' was the only comedy movie I had done. The characterizations drive the story to new entertaining levels. 'F3' is more a sequel to the 'F2' characters, not to the story of 'F2'.
Venkatesh garu is a nice human being. He was like my brother and a fatherly figure on set. He is as much jovial as he is philosophical. You get to learn so much from him. I didn't take even two days to get along with him. It is because I share some similarities with him. I feel lucky to have got to travel with him so much. It was fun working with the likes of Rajendra Prasad garu, Annapurnamma and others. The rapport that we had achieved during the making of 'F2' helped a great deal.
After the trailer of 'F3' was out, my family members were surprised looking at my performance and style of comedy in the film. They had no idea about what I had been doing!
I usually don't take up a new movie until the current project is released in theatres. I do it in order to gauge the audience's reactions and then decided on what kind of movie to be done. Due to the pandemic, there has been a pile-up and therefore, 'Ghani' and 'F3' have been released within a span of two months.
Dil Raju garu is a passionate producer. Since he is producing a number of films simultaneously, he couldn't always be present on 'F3' set. Shirish garu spent more time with us.
Sunil garu has played a funny role in 'F3'. He was my favourite in the 2000s. 'F3', for the first time in many years, brings back the Sunil of the old days to life! It helped my comic timing that I got to work with such a talented comedian.
Due to OTTs, the audience are exposed to a variety of content. Maybe, it has now become more challenging for films on the creative level. You have to think harder to impress the audience.
'Kanche' is my favourite film in terms of my character. I like it more than my characters in 'Toli Prema' and 'Gaddalakonda Ganesh'.
'F3' talks about the pitfalls of easy money. It says that thrifty behaviour has its negative consequences. During my college days, I would run out of pocket money so fast. My father would give me a limited amount of money (laughs).
My film with Praveen Sattaru is an action film. It will go on the floors in July.
When we in the family meet, we don't discuss films. When I, Ram Charan anna and others meet, we discuss only family matters. We rarely ever touch upon movies.
