Manchu Manoj is excited about his bold film Naan Thirumbha Varuven, the Tamil dubbed version of the Telugu film Okkadu Migaladu. The Tamil title sounds similar to the popular dialogue of Superstar Rajinikanth in Kabali. Manchu will be seen playing a role of a political leader, which will have shades of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Manoj, who is looking forward to the film’s release, opens up about his film.
“The director named the Tamil version as Naan Thirumbha Varuven, because whenever the society is failing — there is always a leader or hero who comes to save the day. It is a cycle, so the name denotes that,” begins Manchu Manoj.
He adds, “The film is a comparison between a leader, who fought for his people back then, with a student leader of this time. When leaders die, they are not gone forever — they keep coming back; that’s the theme of the film.”
Manchu has put on weight for playing the role of the leader and has done extensive homework to play the character. When asked about the research that went into knowing Prabhakaran, on whom the character is based on, he says, “I am not playing Prabhakaran himself, but a similar role. I was born and brought up in Chennai. I have many friends here and I am well aware of the issues. When the directed told me about the character, I had an emotional connect with the protagonist.”
Talking about the debutant director, Ajay Andrews, he says, “He is an extremely knowledgeable person, everyone who speaks to him will realise that. He has done a fantastic job with the writing and dialogues.”
Talking about the increasing collaboration of Tamil and Telugu actors and directors, he says, “It is really fascinating to work with a mix of talents. Telugu cinema has a lot of quality Tamil actors. The coming generations will be able to see good cinema.”
