Adivi Sesh's Major will hit screens on June 3.Adivi Sesh has been waiting for Major to hit screens. The film was initially scheduled to release in July 2021, but got delayed several times due to Covid-19 pandemic. However, the actor says this gave him and the movie’s team some time to reflect, an alien concept in the Telugu film industry.
Sesh, who has starred in several Telugu films, is making his Hindi film debut with Major. The actor feels that the success of Baahubali, RRR and KGF suggests it is time to let go off the fear that didn’t allow actors to venture out with a film beyond regional boundaries.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q. After several delays, the film is finally coming out. What is your headspace like right now?
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Very content because in Telugu cinema what happens is that it is a race to get hard drives to the US on time. We never have a chance to reflect.
Whereas in Hindi cinema, I have noticed that nobody wants to show the film beforehand, because they are worried about reviews, anti-camps and such things. They are like ‘Fridya morning jo hoga, woh dekha jaayega’. With Major, we have none of that happening. The film is ready. We have shown it to hundreds of people in so many cities. My best surprise of the promotional campaign was at a secret screening where a group of twenty teary-eyed guys screamed, ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’, as soon as the film ended. They were also hugging each other. It felt like the film watching experience was only for them rather than anyone else, and that meant a lot to me.
Q. How difficult is it to tell a story of a hero, whose story is still fresh in people’s minds?
Actually our experience has been the polar opposite because so many people know about his courage in his last 36 hours. So many people know the hundreds of people he saved, so many people know the Ashoka Chakra he got. But people don’t know the beautiful 31 years that enabled his final 36 hours. How were these 31 years? You show the photograph of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan to anyone in Mumbai and they’d be like ‘arre inhone Mumbai ko bachaayaa’ (He saved Mumbai). But if you ask them how he must have been like, they would think he was kadak (strong), stern. But the truth is that he was a man who loved to laugh. Major Sandeep’s mom once told me that that when I smile in interviews, I need to smile more. When I asked her why, she said, ‘Because my son doesn’t smile so reserved’. In fact, there is a funny story behind that famous photograph where his eyes are so clear and he has a small smile on his face. When he first took the picture, he was smiling so bright and wide that the photographer told him that he is not supposed to smile for a passport picture. So in the second picture, he stopped himself from smiling, and that is Major Sandeep for you. So, this film is full of life. He is like sunlight.
Q. Can we safely call Major a pan-India movie?
No. It is an all Indian film. I believe the word pan-India has been somewhat abused. It sounded good in the beginning as it felt like we are catering to Indians across the country. But then it started sounding a bit like an euphemism for a dubbed film. On the contrary I believe, in my heart, that a film like Uri: The Surgical Strike is a pan-India film because we loved it in Hyderabad, Kashmir, Mumbai and so on. At the end of the day, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan was born in Kerala and grew up in Bangalore. He was a captain in Hyderabad cantonment and a training officer in Haryana. He also fought in Kargil. And he saved hundreds in Mumbai. If that’s not all Indian, then I don’t know what is.
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Q. With patriotic films, there is a worry that sometimes the stories can take the jingoistic route.
Major is only about understanding the spirit of Major Sandeep. I think jingoism is when you believe that your country is better than another country. Patriotism is about how you can make your country better.
Q. South Indians films are in the spotlight because of their immense success in the Hindi belt. What are your thoughts on the trend?
The south is not in just in the spotlight, it is gargantuan. It is no secret that the biggest, most successful Hindi film of all time is Baahubali. And, now the second biggest, most successful Hindi film is KGF. I think there is a certain value to that and it comes from the fact that the audience is ready to accept the film, no matter where it comes from. In the last ten years, seven out of top ten Hindi films on television are dubbed versions of either Telugu or Tamil films. The success of south Indian films in theatres is an expression of that. Perhaps it was our own fear that didn’t allow actors to venture out with a film sooner. So, what I feel is that we could have got so much love so much sooner.
At the same time, with Major, it is important that we say we wanted to give the audience an authentic Hindi film experience. So, we shot, wrote and designed every scene in Hindi and made it in Hindi. So, in that sense, Major is a one of a kind Hindi film completely made in Hyderabad. And, we followed the same process for Telugu. We made a proper Telugu film, a proper Hindi film and dubbed it into Malayalam for an emotional reason because it is Major Sandeep’s mother tongue.
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