The second day of the Under 25 Summit 2020 on February 2 saw actor, producer, television personality, visual effects supervisor, and entrepreneur Rana Daggubati take the stage to raucous cheering. Dressed casually and wearing a cap that read ‘Tyson’ in bold, the 35-year-old multi-hyphenate took part in two sessions: Careers in entertainment industry with founding partner of KWAN Dhruv Chitgopekar and moderated by co-founder of Under 25, Anto Philip; and Technology in entertainment industry with founder and CEO of Anthill Ventures Prasad Vanga.

The audience got some revelations: he failed the class 10 board exam (don’t cheer for that, Rana laughingly admonished the crowd), he has a Star Wars phone case and he is single. He also had some advice: “if you want to get into films, get to work right away whether it is making a short film or doing theatre”. Stating that he “loves movies”, Rana stresses that he enjoys telling stories, adding that “the want for content and talent is at its highest now”.

Sitting down for a quick chat, the star is understated and approachable, even apologising for “talking a lot”. One of the things that Rana mentioned during the session was that the audience starts to expects a certain persona from a star and this may creatively inhibit said star. So, how does he deal with it?

Agreeing that a lot of stars face this problem, he says, “They are not able to consistently do different things because it requires them to come down from a certain number and return. Now, I have made a choice. If I don't have a story to tell, I might as well stay in office. It is a simpler job than going ahead and doing something I don't like. Between the two Baahubali films, I did a film called Ghazi which was an extremely small film. It doesn't matter what the size of the film is; if it is a story you want to tell, just go ahead and tell it. So, it is really a choice that one makes. Like the question was asked about what I consider success. You need to make that yardstick and stick to it. It doesn't matter if somebody next to me is doing X or Y. This is what you do. When the audience is watching you in the theatre, the lights are off, they are not watching anybody’s split screen. They just want to be engaged in that story. Rana adds, “In the world of arts, unless you are unique to you, you're not going to succeed. I can’t be doing what somebody else does because it's already being done. You can’t emulate success; it’s got to be your own.”

Coming from a visual effects background and still being engaged in the field (having collaborated with startups to incorporate technology in films), what does he think of VFX in India and whether Hollywood should be considered as setting the standard?

Says Rana, “There are two very fundamental differences between the West and India. We have seven or eight very successful industries within one country. Hollywood is an ecosystem that is built along with content and technology. if you see a company like Walt Disney, as much as it is a great content company, it is also a huge technology company. Here in India, convergence is very little, especially in the arts. Because as careers or culture, arts is looked down upon. It is slowly changing in the metros, but it is still not an influence of culture. Being an animator or a visual effects supervisor is still not (considered) a great career path. And the reason I am here at events like this is to kind of find that. Because there are a lot of people with an interest but they don't know the direction to head in. Since we don't have that ecosystem that is there (in Hollywood), it is important for filmmakers or for other industries to kind of come together. How is the tech in India? It’s sharp, we can build a lot of things but that technology is not being used by other industries in India. And we shy away from innovation as a culture because there is a sense that ‘okay, this works, let us use it till it works’. But what happens is today's world is not like that.”

He adds, “It is not a step-by-step world anymore; it is a consistent learning world. It is a different system that has evolved in the last couple of years. I think we need to understand that as a culture and then really promote the arts. How do we get better visual effects or better concepts? When you think of school, how many of them take drawing class seriously? Take it as seriously as math. When you do, it will all change. I think that is really the culture we're trying to inculcate at a micro level.”