Varun Tej is currently enjoying a much-needed high. His latest Telugu film, the horror-comedy Korean Kanakaraju, has emerged as a blockbuster. Over the past decade, Varun has steadily explored different genres, moving from romantic dramas and family entertainers to action films and intense stories.
In an exclusive conversation with NDTV, Varun Tej opened up about his approach to choosing scripts, his efforts to carve out a distinct space for himself in the Telugu film industry, his upcoming projects and his equation with cousin Ram Charan.
“I’m actually at peace right now,” Varun said while reflecting on the success of Korean Kanakaraju.
“It’s been a struggle for the last five years. Finally having the audience embrace this film gives me quite a bit of happiness. From the beginning, I’ve felt it was quite important for an actor to not get typecast. I’ve always made this conscious decision to try out different things. I personally feel that an actor should be able to slip into any kind of character and do any genre. That was a conscious effort right from the beginning.”
The actor believes the pandemic also influenced the kind of films he wanted to be part of.
“During Covid, there was definitely some influence of OTT and the world content I was seeing when I was at home. I did do some comedy entertainers before Covid but post that, I got into this zone of making some serious films. Now, I’ve kind of understood that the audience needs to be entertained from time to time. You have to just leave the baggage at home, come to the theatre, have a laugh for two and a half hours, and leave the worries behind. Ultimately, as an actor, you want the audience who buy your tickets to come to the theatre to have a good time. I went into this introspection mode, understood what the audience wants and I thought this is the right film to do.”
However, Varun admits that figuring out what works with the audience is never easy.
“It’s always a struggle every Friday. It’s more about trying to understand what the audience wants to see you in, what suits you best and what strengths you have as an actor. It’s always important to strike a good balance between novelty and still giving the audience the entertainment that they want.”
He added that even the success of Korean Kanakaraju has not made the process of choosing his next film any easier. “Even though this film has done well, the search for a new script to see what audiences would like is like starting from zero. Luckily, I found a great script, Bhari, now which I’m working on with my sister, Niharika. I’m quite excited about that.”
Bhari is a sports drama produced by Niharika Konidela and directed by Yadhu Vamsee. Varun plays a volleyball player in the film. The actor, who was injured during rehearsals and subsequently underwent knee surgery, is currently recovering and hopes to return to the sets soon.
“Bhari is a pretty rooted film and I’m a sports freak. Yadhu Vamsee won the National Award for Committee Kurrollu and he’s a director who’s very strong with human emotions. I wanted to do something in that space. I’ve done a sports drama, Ghani, before, which didn’t do well and people questioned me, asking why I wanted to burn my fingers again. But I know what went wrong with that film – we tried to add a bit of everything in that film. But this time, we’re quite sure and very hyper-focused on what we want to present to the audience.”
Varun shares a close bond with his younger sister Niharika, and their shared passion for cinema has made working together on Bhari a natural collaboration.
“We bounce a lot of ideas off each other and talk about films. We have a similar mindset or taste when it comes to films. We never really planned to do this collaboration on Bhari. She just pitched that idea to me and I liked it.”
The actor is also looking forward to working with a younger team. “I’d love to work with young, passionate people and Niharika is one of those young producers in Tollywood who’s passionate and is making films in a very unconventional way. I like her approach towards cinema. Working with a young, new team also gives me a lot of energy,” he said.
Varun has also signed a romantic film with Stonebench, director Karthik Subbaraj’s production house. While romance was the genre that launched his career with Tholi Prema, he says the new project is unlike the romantic scripts he was offered earlier.
“It’s a love story that suits my age (36). I started my career with romance but then I got a lot of scripts in the same space as Tholi Prema and I didn’t find them exciting. This script is different,” he said.
Being part of the Mega family, which includes Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan as his uncles and Ram Charan as his first cousin, has also meant that comparisons have been inevitable. Varun, however, says he chooses to look at them positively.
“Comparisons are there for every actor but the beauty about the film industry is that every actor has his own place in the industry. Ultimately, you can take the comparison on a positive note and move forward, or you can dwell on it and feel bad, which is not the right approach.”
Talking about Ram Charan, Varun said he sees his cousin’s success as an inspiration rather than a benchmark. “I mean I look at my brother, Charan – he’s a pretty big actor; he’s a very big star. But when I look at him, I see his effort and everything in a sense of where I want to get someday. I see it only in a positive way and not in a comparative state where it kills your joy.”
Varun also expressed his desire to share the screen with Ram Charan someday. “I’d love to work with him. I really, really adore him. I mean, he’s like a father figure to me honestly,” he said.
While acting remains his primary focus, Varun has not ruled out stepping behind the camera. “I came into the industry to be a director and I definitely have an interest in directing a film in the future,” he signed off.
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