As he comes closer to the release, Rana Daggubati rewinds back to the days before he embarked on the Haathi Mere Saathi journey.
Rana Daggubati in Haathi Mere Saathi. Picture courtesy/PR
Rana Daggubati, the lead protagonist from Haathi Mere Saathi considers himself lucky as an actor for bagging such a rare and unique onscreen character. He plays Bandev in the trilingual which will soon be hitting the theatres. As he comes closer to the release, Rana rewinds back to the days before he embarked on the Haathi Mere Saathi journey.
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Recalls Rana, "Prabhu Solomon had a very clear idea on what Bandev looks like. When he came to me, it was just after Baahubali where I was a huge guy, who had just played Bhallaldev." But how we see Rana in Haathi Mere Sathi is a far cry from his Bhallaldev look. Rana further adds, "I did an extravagant look test for HMS. And Prabu sir said, 'no, this is not how Bandev looks, or somebody who's lived in the jungle forever looks. He can't be so big. I need you to start looking different.' For the next six months, he didn't do a look test, we were only prepping and doing recce. He kept asking me to grow my hair and beard, lose some weight, become lean and agile because he wanted me to move much faster. All of that got done and the day we landed in Thailand, he gave me a week-long workshop where I was training with the elephants and had a lot of time to spend with them."
That wasn't all. Prabu Solomon, the director of this trilingual taught Rana more than that during the workshop. "He detailed what Bandev's relationship with the trees and plants and forest was like, because he's been there for so long. He speaks very fast because he's never spoken to people so he doesn't know how they talk. He only talks to animals."
Summing up his journey towards playing Bandev, Rana smiles and adss, "In terms of character and looks, it's a prep I've never done before. This is something I didn't even dream of. As an actor you want to play unique characters. That's why I jumped on it and said I got to be a part of this if it's so new and unique." Haathi Mere Saathi is a story inspired by multiple events and traces the narrative of a man (Rana Daggubati), who spends most of his life in the jungle, dedicated to protecting the ecosystem. 2021's first trilingual film, will release as Aranya in Telegu and as Kaadan in Tamil.
This will be a hat-trick for Rana as Haathi Mere Saathi is the third trilingual film, post the mammoth Baahubali series and The Ghazi Attack, films that received immense love across the globe. The film is produced by Eros Motion Pictures, a division of Eros STX Global Corporation, an established leader in the Indian film industry with a track record of over 40 years. This is one helluva role any actor worth his salt would love to play. And Rana not just took it up, but has done complete justice to it. Get ready to watch him steer your hearts as Bandev on 26 March 2021 in a theatre near you!
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