Actor Sumanth Prabhas made his debut with Mem Famous, a film he also directed. Interestingly, the small-budget film received support from superstar Mahesh Babu at the time. Now, Sumanth is gearing up for his next release, Godari Gattupaina, in which he plays the lead role. While his debut was set against a Telangana backdrop, this new film is completely different, unfolding in the Godavari region. “That was the biggest challenge for me as an actor, so I worked hard to get the accent right,” said Sumanth.
Born and brought up in Hyderabad, Sumanth also shared an interesting story behind his name. “There was a trend on Facebook where people added their favourite hero’s name as a prefix or suffix. I added ‘Prabhas’ to my name, and since then, people started calling me Sumanth Prabhas,” he said, adding that he is a big fan of Prabhas. “I haven’t met him yet, but I hope to meet him someday,” he said confidently.
After a gap of three years, Sumanth returns with Godari Gattupaina. “Because of this long gap, it feels like I’m doing my first film again. I’m promoting it with the same energy as my debut,” he shared. “This is a super cute film with strong emotions. Jagapathi Babu garu plays a central character. Recently, he has been seen in intense roles, but in this film, he appears in a soft, relatable character, similar to his roles in Subhalagnam and Family Circus. The scenes between us will be very engaging,” he added.
Sumanth revealed that he listened to nearly 80 scripts before finalising this project. “After a point, there was some pressure. I was looking for something fresh in terms of storytelling and emotions when Subhash garu approached me. He has made over 100 short films, all with a cinematic touch. I loved the story he narrated. The Godavari backdrop felt challenging, and the role offered great scope for performance,” he said.
In the film, Sumanth plays an auto driver. “Usually, auto drivers are portrayed as mass characters, but many of them are actually innocent and soft. My character values friendship and family. There’s also an auto race sequence, for which I practiced specially,” he explained.
Though Sumanth directed his debut film, he chose to fully trust director Subhash for this project. “Subhash garu worked very hard on the script and wanted to present it in his own style. Once I heard the story, I completely surrendered to his vision. I only told him to leave the promotions to me,” he said with a smile.
Sumanth also revealed that he had the opportunity to act in Raju Weds Rambai, which recently won the Gaddar Film Award. “Saailu narrated the story to me, and I really liked it. But since I had already done a Telangana-based film like Mem Famous, I felt it might seem repetitive. I shared this with him. Later, Akhil did the film, and it worked well, bringing new talent into the industry,” he said.
Talking about his upcoming projects, Sumanth shared that one film has already been completed. “The details will be announced soon. I plan to do back-to-back films without taking long breaks from now on,” he concluded.
