From romance to redemption: Actor Naga Chaitanya talks about web series debut ‘Dhootha’, fame, adoration and failure

South Indian actor Naga Chaitanya, who made his debut with Telugu supernatural thriller ‘Dhootha’, says he feels liberated now. In the eight-episode serial directed by Vikram K Kumar, Chaitanya plays a journalist with a blurred moral compass. “I was asked a lot of questions when I joined Dhootha, like, ‘Are you sure you want to do this because it’s different from what you’re used to?’ or ‘Would you be accepted for this role?’ … But when so many firsts work in my life, these questions are naturally answered. I feel so free now,” Chaitanya said in an interview with Gulf News.

Son of veteran talent, Nagarjuna and Amala signed director Vikram Kumar’s ‘Dhootha’ while he was shooting for the blockbuster ‘Love Story’, in which he played a friendly Zumba instructor, Revanth, who goes out of his way to protect. His lover (Sai ​​Pallavi). But his latest turn as a sleazy and narcissistic media honcho is a far cry from acting as a benign dance instructor. But that’s what drew him to his debut series, where he plays a role that’s starkly different from his previous Romeo romance roles. It might be a great creative gamble, but actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s ex-husband feels his die-hard fans have taken him back.

“Having that fan following shows you unconditional love, whether you’re doing well or not, or whatever stage of life you’re at, they’re always there for you, cheering you on… Because of my family, I’ve been given this following. .”

While fans love him unconditionally, we wonder if he treats success and failure with equal ambivalence.

“Both success and failure are equally important in life. It is not a healthy life to live only with success or only with failure… you have to have a balance of both to continue to grow. Failure teaches you so much in life. No one can teach you how to deal with failure unless you experience it and find out, Why did everything go wrong,” said Chaitanya.

Excerpts from our interview with Chaitanya as we talk about his web series debut, his plunge into the dark side and more…

I was in a phase as an actor where I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. I’ve done a lot of love stories, family entertainers and a few action films, but I’ve never played anything gray before or played a character with so many layers. When I heard the narration, I was immediately excited by the character of Sagar as I thought it was a great opportunity to reinvent myself and present myself in front of the audience in a different way. Remember, they’re used to seeing me in a certain texture, and so just consciously stepping out of that, pushing myself and also convincing them that I could be convincing in a role like that was an interesting prospect.

I only look at it as an actor. My role as Sagar starts on a neutral note, then turns dark. But what I like about it is the character arc. There is a rounding to the end when he realizes his mistakes. A lot of introspection happens to him over the course of eight episodes. He realizes the danger he poses to his family and himself due to his questionable ethics and business practices. He gets it [folly] and tries to fix it to the end.

Not easily. I wasn’t particular about the redemption arc. My director wrote it in such a way that by the eighth episode, all the characters have a rounding of character. All of the storylines kind of tie together… so my influence wasn’t huge in terms of rounding out my character or showing an affinity for the conflicts. It was my director’s idea.

As for OTT, I decided in my head that I want to fully explore myself as an artist. I put aside all conditioning and expectations about how the audience sees me. I just wanted to develop as an artist and push myself because OTT is a space where audiences are really open to consuming experiential content. I looked at ‘Dhootha’ as an opportunity. As for OTT, I put everything aside and said, “Let me just go with my heart, forget about all the other variables.”

I can separate work from my life and it’s just my process. Once we hit 6pm and the director ‘packs up’, it’s back to normal life. Of course, certain nuances and touches of my character may be limited during the course of the project, but I don’t think the darkness of Sagar has touched my personal space. The most challenging part of ‘Dhootha’ was that the entire sequence was shot in the rain and was physically demanding. The shoot was winding down in the rain, but the darkness of Sagar didn’t affect me.

At first we were excited when Vikra told us this news. According to him, it will be a horror series that will be shot in rain and daylight in many scenes. At that moment, I felt it was such a beautiful contrast… The rain itself was a character in this series. But we both didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into until we actually started shooting. On the fourth or fifth day, we realized that shooting in the rain was our biggest challenge. But the struggle was worth it, because all this work feels validated when the audience gives a positive assessment.

No. It is in the world of journalism, but I believe that the problems we solve are not specific to the profession of journalism. This is a portrait of a situation where ethics are abused by those in power and how the lines are blurred… We are not just targeting journalists or the decline of ethics among journalists.

My father always encouraged me to try new things. Its ideology is uniqueness, and the only way you can be unique is to push yourself to step out of our comfort zones and try something surprising every now and then. And that’s the only way you’ll be relevant as an actor if you want to be here for the long haul. In fact, I was talking to him last night and he was excited about the whole concept of ‘Dhootha’. He was so encouraging and admirable in every aspect of this series. My mother is also watching.

I love the layers behind Sagar’s character… We all go through all kinds of roller coasters in many phases of our lives. There are times when we veer off the road and later realize that the beauty is how we correct ourselves and get back on track. Sagar’s character becomes extremely selfish at one point, but we had to show him going down this downward spiral in which he turns grey/black in spirit to highlight his turnaround. These are the aspects that excited me when it came to playing Sagar. Going into extreme darkness and then finding redemption was a nice process.

I don’t think we could wing it, but I’m not a method actor either. My director is my biggest strength and that is to sit with him and talk about the character and understand his thought process. I even make them usually say my lines so I can imitate them a bit. I even do a few scenes with them because I believe they have been traveling with this character and script for years and years. The idea is to take that understanding a little bit and apply it to my body language. This is a huge power. Vikram spoke to many journalists and read a lot about journalism and he was my tool to help me break my character.

Like him, I need to know what’s going on so I can get more clarity on how to perform and approach my work with a clearer mind. When there is doubt, confusion and question marks, then it will also show in your performance. I learned a lot from him. The six months I spent with him were to go to acting school, and he was a good person. He is a lovely person.

We all want a second season, but we haven’t thought of it yet. We have a few ideas but Vikram is yet to be fixed. But we are all excited and looking forward to the second season as actors and viewers. Now that we have the viewership incentive, I don’t see why we shouldn’t have another season.

“Dhootha” is now out on Prime Video.