Rana Daggubati says cinema does not have a language

SS Rajamouli's ambitious fantasy Baahubali: The Conclusion, starring Rana Daggubati, shattered norms by becoming the first Tollywood film to reportedly surpass Bollywood collections at both, the domestic and global box-office. The success of the actioner, along with the growing interest in alternate cinema, especially in the Marathi film industry, has given credence to the opinion that a career in the Hindi film industry isn't the only way to achieve global stardom.

Daggubati, who straddles Telugu and Tamil cinema with Bollywood, is among those who uphold this notion, suggesting that with Hindi adaptations of big-budget South films becoming commonplace, regional actors too can achieve nation-wide stardom.

Hyderabad-based Daggubati says, "Cinema does not have a language. What excites me is being part of a film. I think about the language later."

Good content finds a way to travel beyond language, Daggubati suggests, alluding to the success of his last release, the Telugu and Hindi Indian war film, The Ghazi Attack, based on the mysterious sinking of the Pakistani submarine during the Indo-Pak war of 1971. "Film folk are storytellers, irrespective of where they reside. You can classify them according to regions, but, we are one nation, using the same medium, relating to the same things."

The actor-producer hopes to feature in projects of not only different languages, but also different platforms. This desire was instrumental in his decision to green-light the recently released Hindi web series, Social, which also has a Telugu version. "I want to explore different platforms. Unlike cinema, where you devote three hours in a multiplex, the new mediums make content available at one's convenience."