Rahul Ramakrishna and Priyadarshi Pullikonda’s entry into Telugu films was like a breath of fresh air. Both the actors have done many films since their debut and have made an indelible impression despite brief appearances. Now the duo are set to return as friends in Prashanth’s Mithai touted to be a dark comedy. Priyadarshi shares a few details about the film: “With Mithai we entered into that area of dark comedy. A theft takes place before Sai’s (Rahul Ramakrishna) marriage. How it gets resolved and marriage takes place is the story. I play his friend Jani. We felt convinced when we read it first. Prashant Kumar being a Bihari was relying on us for the Telugu dialogues. Rahul Ramakrishna has done the writing in Telugu and Prashant gave us a lot of time to rectify and improvise our work. There was great space, freedom and it was an enjoyable experience.”

Priyadarshi has done more than 20 films post Pelli Choopulu. He admits it’s a big number, “Every film offers me something to learn and unlearn, most important the way the industry functions. From Pelli Choopulu, Spyder was a big jump. There was great visibility, working experience in both languages was different. It was a catapult to work with people like Murugadoss, Mahesh Babu and Santosh Sivan. Then I did something like Awe, an offbeat story and narrative. Some films taught me why I shouldn’t do certain kind of films.”

Actor Priyadarshi  

When asked if he prefers being called a comedian or a character artiste, Priyadarshi shoots back, “an actor”. He adds, “Directors Kishore Tirumala and Venky Atluri saw me as a character artiste. In a narrative, you can’t always crack jokes. There are moments where we laugh and fight. The directors took that initiative and I’m going by their gut feeling. There has been monumental change in the way stories are being written. For example, in Arjun Reddy, Rahul Ramakrishna is seriously talking to the maid, also he is empathising with his situation to his dad. As a language it is helping. We are discovering that area, playing the situation rather than being looked at as comedians. We have been given that freedom.”

Does he think and plan or seek guidance from the industry people about his career? He says, “What next is followed by questions and too many suggestions. So many industry experts make sure you have more number of scenes, so that you travel through the end with the hero. Many times we are not given a bound script. We are given just an outline and as we progress through the story we discover where we are going. Very few directors like Kishore Tirumala and Prasanth Varma tell us the story. I come from Indie cinema kind of background and that is where my roots are. If I totally lean towards big banner cinemas, I might be losing out some indie crowd. Also films like Pelli Choopulu, Arjun Reddy and Ghazi paved way for new content and cinema. To be part of such stories, I too need to be a part of indie cinema.”

Priyadarshi has done films like Kanam where he travelled the entire journey with the hero. In some stories, gags are intertwined amidst serious stuff. He has worked with big directors who take comedy seriously and feels it should be there. In Mister, he just comes and goes but such characters are designed with cheesy lines. In Nela Ticket, he is a lawyer in the first half, but post-break it becomes a serious journey. The emphasis is on the story going forward.

So are Priyadarshi and Rahul being typecast with roles that have Telangana dialect? “Rahul and I are categorised as Telangana dialect speaking comedians. We get such offers. In MCA, they wanted a dialect speaking guy. But I never spoke in Telangana dialect in Rangula Ratnam or in Vunnadi Okkate Zindagi. Initially when I was doing Pelli Choopulu we had a doubt about how the reception would be from the Andhra but we were warmly welcomed by them. When I go to Andhrathe local people therecompliment me and are nice. There is no divide at all.”

Priyadarshi is wrapping up Padi padi leche manasu, F2, and Two States. He says commercial success puts him in saleable category. A good film on the other hand gives him respect and satisfaction irrespective of its box office performance. He is striking that difficult, but good, balance here.