Vijay Deverakonda talks about Dwaraka and that one thing he wants to avoid

Actor Vijay Deverakonda is on a roll these days with as many as seven films to his credit. After the success of Pellichoopulu, which turned out to be a surprise hit in 2016, the actor has become the poster boy for new-age filmmakers and several top directors, including Gautham Menon, Sukumar and Trivikram Srinivas, have evinced their interest to collaborate with him.

"It's really heartening to see such top directors in the industry wanting to work with me. Couple of years ago, I didn't imagine that one day I would be in a position where I'll get to talk to them in person. Everything changed after Pellichoopulu released," Vijay says.

His latest film Dwaraka, which is slated for release on March 3, has him playing the role of a small time thief who finds himself in a tricky situation. Directed by Srinivas Ravindra, the film also stars Pooja Jhaveri in a lead role and it's said to be a romantic comedy which has its roots in Mahabharata.

Talking about the film, Vijay says, "When Srinivas pitched me the story, he told me that his vision was to narrate the story of Lord Krishna and how he managed to deal with people who have different mind-sets. Thematically, that's the core concept of the film, although I play a small time thief who gets trapped in an apartment named Dwaraka."

Going by his previous films -- Pellichoopulu and Yevade Subramanyam, Dwaraka seems to be a far cry for Vijay Deverakonda and the actor acknowledges this notion saying, "I wanted to do something really different. Srinivas Ravindra was very particular about the kind of body language that I should have to play this role and I stuck to his vision."

"My focus has always been to do something that I haven't done before and I don't want to be in a position where I'll be forced to take decisions to suit what I'm expected to do after scoring a hit. It's easy to be swept away by the demands of the market and formulaic films if they are backed by big names, but I'm trying to avoid falling in that trap," he added.

Ask him if he's nervous about how the film might fare at the box-office, pat comes the reply, "I'm not here to meet any expectations. I wanted to do something crazy in my life and acting in different kinds of films gives me that freedom. I'm not going to let the fate of one film dictate my acting career."

Apart from Dwaraka, Vijay will also be seen in action drama Arjun Reddy in which he has anger issues, a dark comedy titled Shikaru, another untitled film to be directed by Parasuram, and Nandini Reddy's next. "Looks like I'm going to be busy for the next couple of years. Life's good," Vijay laughs.