Actor Akkineni Naga Chaitanya is all set to make his OTT debut with Dhootha on Amazon Prime. The series was recently screened at the ongoing International Film Festival of India, IFFI in Goa. The actor has been in the news for quite some time now – for professional and personal reasons. While the Love Story star comes from a film family, he has carved a niche for himself. Ever since his debut in 2009 with Josh, the actor has been nailing each role with perfection, and now, his streaming debut has been applauded by the critics at its premier in IFFI.
Directed by Vikram K Kunar, Dhootha is a supernatural suspense thriller that sees Naga Chaitanya as a journalist who finds himself engulfed by supernatural events resulting in many mysterious deaths. The actor was in conversation with the media after the first look of the series.
“I had decided that whenever I take up any OTT project for the first time, I would want to come out of my comfort zone. Dhootha is a supernatural show, which I have never done before. I am a fan of the director so working with him felt good,” he said.
Sharing his experience of working on a streaming project he said that OTT is different from films. “However, the art and the approach are the same on both the platforms. It’s just that on OTT you have a number of episodes so there is a lot of screen time for each character’s approach of unfolding the layers in the character,” he stated.
Commenting on the global reach of South Indian movies, the actor said, “We are very proud of our achievements all over the globe. It’s a rarely found appreciation.” He also added that the language barriers are also blurring within the industry.
“We are very fortunate that the language barriers have blurred so everyone is embracing our work. As an actor getting maximum exposure feels good,” he added. Would you like to work in a Hindi remake? We ask. “I think remake culture is slowly going away. People are keen on watching films with subtitles. Therefore, the trend of remakes seems to be fading away. We are being original now,” said the Custody actor, adding that he also doesn't have any favourite director that he would like to work with. “I am open to working with everyone.”
Being the son of noted actor and producer Nagarjuna, who is equally popular in the Hindi film industry as much as in the South, Naga has learned a lot from his father as far as his film career is concerned. “My dad has always told me to be true to myself. That’s how they have created a fan base for themselves being true to themselves. It’s always fine if you fall and make mistakes because to err is human nature and you learn through your mistakes,” said the actor in conclusion.
