South cine-actor Naga Chaitanya is soon making his Bollywood debut with Aamir Khan's Laal Singh Chaddha, releasing on 11 August. The film is a remake of Tom Hanks' 1994 cult classic Forrest Gump, and also stars Kareena Kapoor as the female lead opposite Aamir. The Quint spoke to the actor about his experience working in his first Hindi-language film, why he chose Laal Singh Chaddha for his Bollywood debut, the difference between the South film industry and Bollywood, and more.
Speaking about why he chose the Aamir Khan-starrer as his Bollywood debut Naga added, "I always wanted to enter the Bollywood space. Being mentored by someone or being presented through someone who's already been here and has a lot of goodwill — I was waiting for that opportunity. I think that's one of the reasons."
"Even though I'm not there throughout the film, I'm there for about 20-30 minutes...it didn't really matter to me that I'm not the lead of the film. I always want to do some kind of special characters from time-to-time, that really give me that excitement as an actor. It's not always about being the lead. It's always about exploring yourself through other ways."Naga Chaitanya, added.
Talking about the difference between the two film industries the actor said, "There was a huge difference. The process was completely different. The kind of time Aamir sir gives to pre-production is immense. And once a shoot is complete, the time he gives for edit, the screenings, shows the film to a number of people and gets their opinion...He tries to groom the film better. So, all these exercises were very very new to me."
Naga further spoke about the perception of nepotism in the South film industry and also addressed the buzzing controversies surrounding his personal life.
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