Allu Arjun, who is very popular with the Kerala masses and is fondly called Mallu Arjun, was in Kochi to thank the Kerala audience for their acceptance of his latest film Sarrainodu dubbed as Yodhavu in Malayalam. The hordes of fans waiting outside the hotel entrance was a testimony to his popularity here in addition to his one crore followers on his social networking site.
Looking with an impartial eye, there is no denying the star charisma that Allu Arjun exudes while striding through the hotel lobby in Kochi. Looking stylish, dapper and at home in Kerala, he took time out to talk about his career and family. About his role in the film Yodhavu, he says, “I play an informal social activist in the film and it is a commercial family entertainer with a dose of mass action.”
It is his 13th year in the industry and Allu Arjun has played a variety of commercial roles. He is in his element in films that require liberal doses of action, romance or dancing prowess. While there is no denying that he shines in these roles, does the thought ever cross his mind that his potential needs to be tapped further than the dance-action-romance routine?
He replies, “I was asked once if I have finished playing all kinds of roles and my reply was that I have done only 15 films and I still have so many more roles and genres to do. I want to push the envelope and explore them!” Allu Arjun is very aware of his strength and has no inhibition in stating that his first love and inclination would always be towards commercial films.
Off beat films are definitely not in his plans and he explains, “A star can be an actor anytime but an actor can never be a star! I am very comfortable with my mass films though I would like to play performance-oriented roles in that commercial space!”
Though Allu Arjun is regarded as a very safe bet at the box office, the pressure to consistently deliver a hit can be an albatross around any actor's neck. The star does not deny this and says that every film of his is like a new film. The pressure starts when he has to find a good commercial film, and he adds, “It is easy to act in a commercial film but finding freshness in a commercial film is a challenge!”
The actor mentions that he does experience tension when he sees his film first before the audience. He reasons, "When I see my film at a later stage, I can gauge the audience reaction and deduce if the film will have a good run or not."
Brushing aside the constraints of language, stars from other industries are trying their luck in other industries. Allu Arjun, seen predominantly in Telugu films, too is planning to make the move to other industries.
He says, “Yes, I will be working in other industries and Malayalam is one of them. For the past three years, I have been thinking of doing a Mollywood film. Not many film makers approach me because of the remuneration factor but in the next two years I should be doing a Malayalam film!”
Letting the mystery about the project remain, he adds, “Malayalis have given me so much of love and I have to show my gratitude to them!” Mention of his family brings the light back into Allu Arjun's eyes. Talking about the influence of his family, he says, “I hardly discuss my scripts with my wife Sneha and she does not know much about films. Before our wedding, she would have seen hardly three films of mine! Post wedding she has seen all my films. The most she has commented is that I look good in my films! She was worried if a moustache would suit me and the biggest compliment she has made is that I look good with a moustache and a beard!”
His son two-year-old Allu Ayaan had recently by mistake tweeted a Pawan Kalyan song on Allu Arjun’s twitter feed which caught the star by surprise. Allu Arjun reveals, “My son has not watched any of my films and as a policy, he is kept away from television. The maximum technology he is allowed are iPod and iPhones so that he can listen to songs and see pictures because it is impossible to keep a child totally away from technology, especially when you are travelling for long periods and you need to keep them engaged,”signs off Arjun.
