After making his presence felt in Bollywood with powerful performances in both mainstream and independent films, as well as some widely appreciated streaming shows, actor Jim Sarbh is gearing up to make his Telugu debut with director Sekhar Kammula’s social thriller Kuberaa, featuring South Indian icons Nagarjuna, Dhanush and Rashmika Mandanna in lead roles. Opening up about working on the movie without a grasp of the language, Jim shared that his strategy was to memorise his lines as much as possible. He also spoke about his experience working with Nagarjuna, whom he considers an acting legend.
“I have done all my lines in Telugu, although I don’t know the language. I just mugged up my lines. It takes time and effort, but I am pretty good at doing that,” he said during an appearance on SCREEN’s Suvir Saran Show. “I was wildly nervous the first day. Not just that I had never spoken the language, but I didn’t even know two words of it. Nagarjuna was my co-actor in that scene, and it was just me and him. I knew he was a legend, and I had seen some of his work. I was shitting bricks and wanted to be under the couch instead of being on the couch. I had to be very commanding over him as well in the scene. So I was nervous,” he added.
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“Only after that first day finished and they said, ‘Oh my god, you’re doing it well,’ did I gain a little bit of confidence. And Nagarjuna was such a gentle, encouraging, loving, chilled-out, cool guy on set. That really made it a lot easier. He didn’t make me nervous at all. He instead did everything within his power to make me feel comfortable and relaxed,” he shared, adding that he plays a grey-shaded character in the movie with most of his scenes being alongside Nagarjuna.
Helmed by Sekhar Kammula, Kuberaa features music by Devi Sri Prasad, production design by Thota Tharani, cinematography by Niketh Bommi and editing by Karthika Srinivas. The highly anticipated film is produced by Suniel Narang and Puskur Ram Mohan Rao under the banners of Sree Venkateswara Cinemas LLP and Amigos Creations Pvt Ltd. In addition to its original Telugu version, Kuberaa will also be released in Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada.