Rana Daggubati on abusing ‘mama' Venkatesh in Rana Naidu: ‘I didn't understand Hindi curses, it was when I dubbed it in Telugu that I realised…'

Indian Express

a day ago

Rana Daggubati was one of the first Telugu stars from his generation to venture into Hindi cinema with Rohan Sippy's Dum Maaro Dum (2011), Ram Gopal Varma's Department (2012), and Neeraj Panday's Baby (2015). And this is before his period action fantasy franchise Baahubali gave rise to the pan-India phenomenon.
Rana also turned out to be a first mover in the world of streaming through Karan Anshuman's 2023 action thriller show Rana Naidu on Netflix India, which he agrees is the 'first pan-India show.' In an exclusive interview with SCREEN, he talks about returning as the titular character in season 2, working with his uncle Venkatesh Daggubati, and more.
Now that you've done it enough, have you grown used to cursing your uncle on screen?
(Laughs) Since it was Hindi, I didn't understand much of what I said in part 1. So I thought it was okay. It was worse when I was dubbing it in Telugu. It was like, 'Shit! What did I say!' There's a very definite attire and thought gone into how they look and think. Till they're in those clothes, we're all fine. We're licensed to do anything.
How is Venkatesh as a scene partner?
From the time I made it as an actor, I always thought I'd work with him at some point of time. I was really looking forward to what that project would be. Rana Naidu is something unique that came our way. It's not something he or I have done before. These characters can just go on because they started from such opposite ends that you can travel with them across multiple seasons. As a co-actor, he's pretty phenomenal and charges us to be better each time.
Since Rana Naidu is all about family, how did the extended Daggubati family react to it?
All of them watched it independently. The kids watched it together. The moms and the grandmoms watched it separately. I think that's also the joy of streaming. At the time of season 1, we were feeling a bit edgy about how it'd turn out. But whether it's someone in the family or not, the show in itself was so new. Hindi had seen a lot of shows, but for the Telugu audience, this was pretty much the first big show that came out. Abhishek (Banerjee, co-star) kept pointing out, 'This is the only 'pan-Indian' show.' I said yeah, that's probably true. There was a lot of shock value in season 1. And then there was a family in which you hated everyone, but strangely, wanted them to be together as well. That intrigued many people.
Do you see any similarity between Rana Daggubati and Rana Naidu, the character?
Rana Naidu is the darkest version of Rana Daggubati that you can find, with all the issues at their peak. What was weird for me was that at the beginning, since my character is called Raina, every time Venky was saying, 'Rana! Rana!' I didn't know if it was my uncle shouting at me or the character. That was pretty messed up.
Also Read — Rana Daggubati says Rana Naidu is 'a dark reality of my real life': 'This show is actually a biopic'
But was there nothing common with the character to hold on to, that you resonated with, took along, and flew with?
As a human being, who I am is a sum of all these parts I've played in the last 15-16 years. When you live so long with a character, you do some things on your own, but subconsciously, there are a lot more happening. An assistant told me every time you play different roles, your handwriting changes. Now, I didn't notice that. It's crazy! At one point, I was playing an organized politician. The handwriting from the notebooks at that time have the perfect handwriting! So there is a lot that happens you can't speak about. It's others who notice that. So, I'm sure I must've picked up a lot of pieces. And now that I've done two seasons, I'm sure there'll be a lot of Rana (Naidu) in me.
Rana Naidu season 2 will drop on Netflix India this Friday on June 13.