After a publication spelled his name wrong, Rana Daggubati had the perfect response. Quoting the tweet, he replied, "That’s also my reaction every time you spell my name wrong." The original tweet used Daggubati's picture, from his upcoming film Haathi Mere Saathi, as a reaction image to talk about the pandemic's 'second wave', "Our reaction to the second wave of the pandemic... #RanaDagubatti." Twitter users filled the tweet's replies pointing out the blunder, with several people quoting Rana's tweet.
On the work front, Rana will play the character of Bandev, a man who lives in a forest in harmony with elephants, in Prabhu Solomon's directorial Haathi Mere Saathi. Talking to the Indian Express about the film and the transformation he undertook for the role, "When Prabu sir came to me with Haathi Mere Saathi, I was out of Baahubali, three times my size. I was playing the king of Mahishmati. So, of course, the look was different. We did one look test back then but Prabu sir was clear that it was not the way I needed to look." The movie also stars Vishnu Vishal, Pulkit Samrat, Shriya Pilgaonkar, and Zoya Hussain.
The movie was also simultaneously shot as Kaadan in Tamil and Aranya in Telugu. While the movie was scheduled to release simultaneously in the three languages, Eros Motion Pictures announced that the release of the Hindi version is being delayed due to the 'COVID-19 situation'. They released a statement saying, "It pains us to share this news but given the Covid-19 situation in the Hindi markers, the team of Haathi Mere Saathi has decided to hold on to the release of the film. We shall keep you posted on further developments..." They also confirmed that the other versions namely Aranya and Kaadan will still release on March 26, 2021.
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