Testing new waters

After playing guy-next-door roles mostly, actor Sumanth Ashwin will be seen as a bus conductor in his forthcoming film ‘Right Right’. Ask what made him to star in the Telugu remake of Malayalam film ‘Ordinary’ and he replies, “It’s a realistic story and it moved me. I like the way the premise unfolds and felt the audience would relate to it without much coaxing from our end. We have made a few changes to the script to suit our nativity. We shot in Araku to make it look authentic.”

But isn’t the actor too cute to play a conductor? “I aspire to become a cop in the film but end up being a conductor (smiles). But yes, initially, I was apprehensive but I recalled Rajinikanth, in one of his movies, playing a conductor, and that’s what drove me to take up the part and explore something different. We did a workshop on my character’s style and behaviour and it helped me a lot,” he explains.

The actor reveals that working with Prabhakar (‘Baahubali’ fame) was a new experience. “Initially, people thought that I would be a mismatch for Prabhakar (who plays a driver) as he is coming fresh after playing an ominous villain in ‘Baahubali’. But we believed the peculiarity element will be eccentric and brings a welcome change to the audience.

The odd combination does the trick when the audience find it fresh and interesting. In fact, many people who saw the rushes have appreciated our on-screen chemistry. Personally too, he’s very humble,” he describes, pointing out that the bus they drive plays a big role in the film. Sumanth’s dad MS Raju is a filmmaker himself and the actor admits that he does discuss scripts with him. Holding his dad in high esteem, he shares, “I always discuss scripts with him and we exchange opinions.

Sometimes he gives me tips on how my body language should be for certain roles and what sort of scripts I should choose, etc. When I was looking for a reference for my role in ‘Kerintha’, he suggested me to look up to NTR’s role in ‘Mayabazar’. So he’s been like a pillar of support and has always been encouraging.”

Talking about film’s director Manu, he shares. “Manu worked as an associate for both the versions (Malayalam and Tamil) of ‘Drishyam’. The two units were singing praises for him and I too saw his work. It was commendable. Moreover, he never gave the impression that he was a novice. He was clear in what he wanted and fine-tuned the script well.”