As the release of Kirrak Party is being advanced, its main lead Nikhil Siddarth is set for his next project which will be another ramake - this time of a Tamil film Kanithan. Ask him the reason for being part of back to back remake movies, he says, “We have retained 60 percent from the Kannada film Kirrik Party for Telugu version Kirrak Party but we’ll be having just the soul of Kanithan in the Telugu version — 99 % of it is being changed. I will be doing a sequel of Karthikeya which will be directed by Chandoo Mondeti and I might be working with Vi Anand again. Doing one remake after the other is just a coincidence.”
About his personal life he says, “My career is going well, I have four films right now and I think I should get married when I have time to give time to the girl. I need to look out for a girl who will understand the pressures and working style of an actor. Maybe after delivering two more hits, I will think of it seriously, but I am not ready yet.”
Kirrak Party title is apt in two ways…it is a celebration and also the name of the political outfit that the protagonist comes up with in the college. In Kannada it means ‘godava’. Nikhil who is seen sporting a beard, shares, “About the beard, I am playing different characters in the film, there are different shades to it; initially he is a fresher who later becomes a student leader. I added eight kilos of muscle. I realised body transformation makes a huge difference to acting. I had to change my voice a bit too.”
The hero of the film Krishna (Nikhil) grows through a heart break, gets involved in politics, friends and all his experiences in college life are interestingly told. With Nikhil, Chandoo Mondeti, Sudheer Verma and Sharan Kopisetty all being engineering graduates, they pooled their experiences and memories to give it a fresh touch.
Nikhil quips, “I felt I was going to college all over again while I worked on the sets. There were quite a few newcomers and lesser-known actors. The filmmakers wanted a fresh face and not a girl who has already been seen. Rashmika (who played the lead in the Kannada version) was busy with other projects and Samyukta hadn’t done any film so we finalised her.”
The filmmaker is planning to target the students because it is a college film and there is a nice message in the film; about friendship, how you should study before falling in love, how to get over a breakup. The idea to have directors Sudheer Verma and Chandoo Mondeti on board was producer Anil Sunkara’s, he wanted one of them to direct but both of them were busy with their respective projects; so they introduced their AD Sharan Kopisetty and he came on board. Chandoo Mondeti knew the pros and cons of the project as he earlier handled the remake of Premam. His experience and inputs helped the film. They made sure it didn’t resemble Happy Days or Premam, they share.