Adivi Sesh plays the lead role in Dacoit, which will come out in theatres on April 10. Advance bookings overseas have taken off to a healthy start. In this interview, the talented actor-writer talks about the romantic action drama, which co-stars an ensemble cast. The film is directed by Shaneil Deo, Sesh's long-time friend and an expert cinematographer to boot.
In my earlier films, the love story was just a small part meant to reach a wider platform, but in Dacoit, the love story itself is the foundation. The entire film revolves around it. If you go to watch action in a love story, you feel happy, but if you go to watch love in an action film, you might feel disappointed. In this film, all the emotions feel very organic. The story actually began with a visual metaphor that came to me one day: on a busy road, from a crack in a concrete footpath, a small flower emerges. From that image, we built a love story set between intense anger and action.
The response to the Telugu trailer of Dacoit has been amazing, and the Hindi response has been fantastic as well. It has reached far better than we expected. For the first time, people even asked whether it would premiere in Bhojpuri too, and that made me very happy. Having Pawan Singh (a Bhojpuri superstar) in the film has become a special attraction for the Bhojpuri audience.
I had never danced on screen before because, when I was young, someone once told me that I was too tall to dance, and that stayed with me. I set that limitation for myself. But for Dacoit, I broke that barrier. I was inspired by the character Hari a.k.a Romeo, who is very straightforward and open. For the role, I practiced the Madanapalle dialect so much that I even started speaking it at home, and my mother asked me why I was talking like that. The film might feel like it was delayed, but from my perspective, I have been working on it every single day for the past two years. That’s just my process. If I want back-to-back releases, I can’t stay stuck in writing for so long. After Goodachari 2, I also want to emotionally recharge and work within other people’s visions.
We wanted Dacoit to release in Dolby from the very beginning. Later, Allu Aravind garu called and said the film looked very promising and suggested we collaborate, which made me very happy. We also wanted fresh music, and working with Bheems Ceciroleo was a great experience because even he felt this was very different from his usual style.
Doing a 100-day shoot is like conducting 100 weddings, and producer Supriya Yarlagadda handled everything with great patience. She is truly a gem of a producer.
Including a reference to Mahesh Babu happened very naturally during the writing process, and it fit perfectly in that situation. Anurag Kashyap came on board in a very interesting way; he was in Hyderabad for Naga Chaitanya and Sobhita’s wedding celebrations, and when we approached him, he said Supriya had already spoken to him about the film. He immediately agreed to listen, and we narrated the story to him in a tent there. He is a very honest person.
Chases and stunts are always challenging. I even had a knee injury that delayed things by two to three months and also affected Goodachari 2. Doctors advised me not to do action for six months. In this film, there are fewer fights but more stunts. We shot on big mountains, and the climax was filmed in 45-degree heat, which was very demanding.
Mrunal Thakur is an amazing actress. She feels the emotion of a scene even outside of it. After performing a scene with her, I was genuinely surprised, and it pushed me to raise my own performance. That kind of healthy competition really helps.
I did receive several offers in Bollywood after Major, including war films and biopics, but I had done Major only as a passion project for Major Sandeep’s parents. Continuing to do war films didn’t feel ethically right to me, and I didn’t connect with the biopic stories I was offered.
I really like broken love stories, which is why we can watch Devadas again and again. Every film I write has a part of my life in it. When I had my first breakup at 19, I didn’t understand it at all, and it took me almost ten years to fully move on. For two years, I couldn’t even process it. I tried to channel those emotions into Hari’s character in Dacoit.
I have managed to look the same over the years because I don’t smoke or drink, and I am vegetarian. Since I grew up in the US, I can’t handle too much spice or masala. And G2 will release by the end of this year.
