Telugu actor Nani, who starred in the National Award-winning film 'Jersey', believes that the film's Hindi remake starring Shahid Kapoor was a good attempt. While the Hindi remake didn't do well at the box office as opposed to the original one, the Telugu actor believes that many factors affect a film's collections and cannot be generalised.
The Hindi remake was directed by Gowtam Tinnauri, who helmed the original 2019 film as well. The film starred Shahid Kapoor, Mrunal Thakur and Pankaj Kapur in the leading roles. The film was delayed twice due to the pandemic, but finally released in April this year.
Showing support towards the Hindi remake, Nani tells us, "I have seen the Hindi version and they did a great job. Shahid and all of them. I think in today's time, because of social media and OTT, a lot of people from North got to see the original 'Jersey'. Obviously any film, however well done, I think, the first time you see, it will have a bigger impact. There are too many factors in this. I know of a lot of people, including myself, who saw the Hindi version and loved the film. The box office angle could have many reasons, so I can't comment on that."
The growing popularity of Southern cinema in the Hindi-speaking belt has changed dynamics at the Indian box office. While the pressure to produce films on Hindi film industry is on an all time-high, films from Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada are enjoying a good run at the box office.
Nani accepts that while this is indeed a great time for Indian cinema, producing good content is not a new thing for south cinema.
"I think now it's not about South cinema getting good content, now they are able to see good cinema. Good content was always there and even Hindi good content was always there. Now, its a good thing that now everyone across the country is able to access every language film and it is a good change. Because in future we will all be one cinema, one industry and whichever film gets good content wins, so this is a very good thing to happen to cinema," he says.
Nani's recent release was 'Ante Sundaraniki', a romantic comedy. The actor's previous two releases - 'Shyam Singh Roy' and 'Tuck Jagadish', were both intense dramas with action as the dominant genre.
Playing the role of a Brahmin boy Sundar, who falls in love with a Christian girl (played by Nazriya Nazim), Nani enjoyed shooting the film because of its light genre.
"It was a relief definitely. In the other films there was action and extreme effort was put in but in this film it was not like that. This was a very conservationist film and especially the working experience was a much much easier one because of the light-heartedness of the scenes. Everyday on sets we were laughing and enjoying, so it was a very different experience for me," he says.
