Chiranjeevi: Amitabh Bachchan is the only megastar, no one comes near him

The teaser of Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy was launched in Mumbai on Tuesday. The Telugu-language epic is directed by Surender Reddy and stars megastar Chiranjeevi as Indian freedom fighter Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy. The descendant of a Madurai-feudal family, Narasimha Reddy lead a large-scale peasant rebellion against the East India Company in Kurnool in 1846. He is regarded as the first revolutionary of the Indian freedom movement.

“This is an untold story about an unsung hero,” Chiranjeevi said. “All Indians should know about Narasimha Reddy. This story was lying with me for almost a decade. Because of budget constraints, I couldn’t dare to make this film. Finally, (my son Ram) Charan and Surender Reddy came forward to make this movie and take it pan-India.”

Chiranjeevi’s last Hindi film appearance was in Mahesh Bhatt’s The Gentleman (1994). Asked about his long hiatus from Bollywood movies, the actor shared, “I don’t know why this break happened. I didn’t get any proper content to come back again. Afterwards, I stopped the film acting and went into politics for 10 years. Then, in 2017, I started working again. I felt with this film (Sye Raa) I should come back to Bollywood.”

Produced by Ram Charan, Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy boasts a huge ensemble of Vijay Sethupathi, Kichcha Sudeep, Jagapathi Babu, Tamannaah, Anushka Shetty and Ravi Kishan. Amitabh Bachchan has a special appearance as the mentor of Narasimha Reddy. “There is only one megastar and that is Amitabh Bachchan. No one comes near him,” Chiranjeevi said. “My director wanted him to play my guru in Sye Raa. I called him and explained the role to him. I said we will take one week of his time. He immediately told me — ‘Chiranjeevi, you have never asked me for anything. Since you are asking, I must say yes.’”

Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani have come on board to present Sye Raa in Hindi. Their banner, Excel Entertainment, had earlier presented KGF: Chapter 1 in northern territories. Farhan said his love for regional cinema was ingrained in his upbringing. “I grew up on a healthy diet of films that were not just Hindi movies. My mother had a great collection of movies from different parts of the world in different languages. Right now, the way the world is, there are boundaries being put up everywhere. So it’s great that people in cinema are tearing down boundaries and exchanging films and culture.”

Tamannaah spoke about following up her Baahubali success with Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy. “My character in this film is completely different from the one in Baahubali,” she said. “I have worked with Surender Reddy before. He always calls me to do something different. Also, for me, it was a dream since I entered the South Indian film industry to work with Chiranjeevi Sir.”

Vijay Sethupathi, who recently won the Best Actor award at the Melbourne International Film Festival for his performance in Super Deluxe, fended off rumours of having signed his first Hindi film. “No (I haven’t signed a film). I am in talks for a movie but seriously I don’t have any idea,” he said. On his collaboration with the team of Sye Raa, Vijay added, “I’m so blessed. I never expected to work with these legends. I am happy to be a part of this film.”

Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy arrives in theatres on October 2. Amit Trivedi has composed the music for the film, which will release in five languages — Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, and Kannada.