Interview: Rana Daggubati reveals a similarity between Baahubali 2 and The Ghazi Attack [VIDEO]

Bollywood and South Indian star Rana Daggubati has won hearts with his performance in his latest release, The Ghazi Attack. The movie has received a positive response from the industry, as well as from the audience.

Also read: Check out weekend box office collection of Rana Daggubati's The Ghazi Attack

Rana, who will next be seen in the much-awaited Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, opened up about his experience of shooting The Ghazi Attack in an exclusive interview with International Business Times, India. The hunk talked about the difficulties they faced for the first underwater Bollywood drama, in which they had to shoot underwater for 18 days. He also revealed a similarity between The Ghazi Attack and magnum opus Baahubali 2.

Here are the edited excerpts of the interview:

International Business Times: What was your first reaction when you heard the script of The Ghazi attack?

Rana: I came across a filmmaker in Hyderabad, who was making a short film based on a book that he had written, called Blue Fish. It was based on 1971 India-Pakistan war incident that happened underwater and the sinking of the PNS Ghazi (submarine). Now to me, it was obviously a very unique tale, something I have never seen on the celluloid before. It was like a film straight out of Hollywood and reminded me of movies like U-571 or Crimson Tide. 

We have seen Hollywood films based on the US Navy, so to me, this was a very new film to work on. Also, it was important to me because it happened in the region that I am from. I am from Andhra (Pradesh). I have been to Vizag many times and I have seen the submarine that is placed on the beach there. And I was one of those civilians who didn't know about it.

IBT: Tell us about your character in the movie?

Rana: The character I play is of Lt Commander Arjun Verma, who is not originally from S-21, but put on the mission on special orders. When Arjun speaks, every line is measured and he is somebody with extreme discipline. He follows the theory with all his heart. He is extremely patriotic but lives by the rules.

IBT: What difficulties did you face while shooting for The Ghazi Attack considering the shoot was under water for 18 days? How was the experience?

Rana: I won't say it was difficult, but it was extremely challenging because we were out there trying to do something for the first time. If we were stuck somewhere or we had any issues to execute something, we had nowhere to go to. We started doing a lot of research by ourselves, a lot of trial and error, especially when we got underwater. We have done a lot of action scenes and for that, we had great choreographers. We did not have anybody who has done anything underwater before, so there was a huge trial and error process that had to be done. This film took a long time to make, mainly because everything we did was being done for the first time.

IBT: Tell us about the amazing star cast. 

Rana: When people like Kay Kay Menon and Atul (Kulkarni) came on-board, they were far more disciplined on sets than anyone else. Firstly, all of us were charged up to get things right, and make it real and authentic. Thus, these two men were like teachers, mentors for us on that set. 

IBT: The Hindi movie industry praised The Ghazi Attack immensely. What is the reaction from the Telugu industry?

Rana: Hindi cinema has seen a lot of genre films like this. They had Airlift, Neerja, and Baby. But in Telugu, it became a very new and a unique genre. It was very relatable as it happened in Visakhapatnam. The reaction has been similar to that of Bollywood and we are very excited and looking forward to see the result of this film.

IBT: Playing hero in The Ghazi Attack or playing a villain in Baahubali, which was more challenging?

Rana: Well it's like comparing apples and oranges. You are doing two different things. You are fighting wars – one is in water, one in medieval times. Both of them come with two different kinds of excitement. But what is similar between the two of them is that everything we did on the sets as actors were being done for the first time and that's the excitement an actor wants. We got the opportunity to do so many new things in both the films.

IBT: What are your upcoming projects?

Rana: I have Baahubali 2 that releases in April, and then I am shooting for a political drama in Telugu, which is set on Anantapur. I am also shooting for a bilingual – Tamil-Telugu film, which is set in 1945. It is a tale of a soldier, who fought in INA (Indian National Army), so that's another war film in the pipeline this year.

Watch the full interview here: