I had to endure shoulder pain to play Pushparaj, says Allu Arjun

This time, Icon Star Allu Arjun wants his presence felt in Kollywood – the place where he grew up, the place that made a great impact as a boy and growing into adolescence. Even though he got closer to Hindi audiences through his dubbed films on YouTube, Bollywood is not his priority list. He wants […]

This time, Icon Star Allu Arjun wants his presence felt in Kollywood – the place where he grew up, the place that made a great impact as a boy and growing into adolescence. Even though he got closer to Hindi audiences through his dubbed films on YouTube, Bollywood is not his priority list.

He wants to win the hearts of Tamil Nadu people also, he says. The style and the swag he is known for – Allu Arjun admits that Chennai days had a massive influence on him which he realised lately. “I’ve been longing to taste victory in Kollywood. ‘Pushpa’ got me closer to them with the songs,” he says.

Explaining how cumbersome a process to turn on-screen Pushparaj is, the Icon Star says it would take two hours to put up make-up and takes half-an hour to just remove. 

“I was not aware of prosthetic makeup in Hollywood films. Through ‘Pushpa’ I had a glimpse into the makeovers and the time-consuming process that is involved in it besides learning the slang was again the toughest task. I wouldn’t just deliver the dialogues, I had to ensure it looked real. I mastered the Rayalaseema dialect so that the language I speak shouldn’t mimic someone. Acting with a half-raised shoulder on the screen was painful. I had to endure pain on the shoulder for which I underwent surgery in 2005 and 2011,” he says.

 For the first time in his career, Allu Arjun says he wants to know how the industry would react, including the stars, watching him playing the role that he ever imagined. 

“It’s not a film that was made keeping the pan-India factor in view. We wanted to deliver the product in the right way in Telugu. Later, we decided to reach out to other languages. We’ve to wait for the pan-India audience to receive it. Our goal was not to make it into a film like ‘Baahubali’ or ‘KGF’. I’ve a good base in Kerala and Kannada audiences like my films. For the first time, ‘Pushpa’ will be catering to Tamil, Kannada and Hindi audiences on December 11,” he says.

 Allu Arjun’s combination with Sukumar had raked in evergreen success at the box office. ‘Arya’ and ‘Arya 2’ were career-defining flicks for both Sukumar and Allu Arjun. 

“Everytime we catch up, he would tell me we’ve to do a film. Yes, there’s been a long gap after ‘Arya 2’. He just gave the premise of Pushpa,and in just 10 mins, I okayed it. I couldn’t feel more convincing than how he feels about the world of Pushpa. But then, when he went narrating it in depth, I doubted how this could become a cinematic story. The story was exceeding four hours, that’s when I thought we should bring it in two parts,” he adds.

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