Goodbye Bollywood, Prabhudeva!
It’s Goodbye , Bollywood for the astoundingly multi-faceted Prabhudheva. He has moved back to his home in Chennai, at least for some time now.All his film projects are now in the South.
Says Prabhu with his typical laugh, “I had moved bag and baggage to Mumbai for four years. I directed five films in a row in Hindi .Now I am back in the South directing a Tamil film after six years Karuppu Raja VellaiRaja.”
Did he move back because he was homesick? “Not at all. I don’t know where my home is. My two sons are studying in Chennnai, so I can’t uproot them from that city. But that apart I consider all of India my home. I am as much at home in Chennai as I am in Mumbai and Hyderabad.And work takes me everywhere.”
Work at the moment means not just direction but acting also. Lots of it. “Would you believe it. I acting in three Tamil films at the moment. They are very different from one another, and in fact they require me to stretch myself beyond what I’ve done so far. Any work I do at the moment as director, actor or choreographer has to take me ahead of what I’ve already done.”
Is Prabhudheva still a choreographer at heart?
“I think I am all the things that I do put together. Work is all I have.I have no love life. Even if I did work would get top priority. I need to be constantly working in films doing work in any capacity,in any language.As a choreographer also I will go when the work inspires me. I recently choreographed a song for a Tamil film with Sayesha Sehgal who incidentally plays the lead in the Tamil film I am directing.”
So is it goodbye to Bollywood for now?
“Not at all. In fact I am already looking at projects in Hindi. One film that I am definitely directing is a film love-action drama starring Sooraj Pancholi.”
But that would be in 2018. 2017 will keep Prabhu busy in the South with the three Tamil films that he is acting in and the one that he is directing.
The Tamil film Karruppu Raja Vellai Raja that Prabhudheva is directing is a big a lavish costume drama.
Understandably Prabhu is excited. “I’ve never done something like this film before. It’s a new challenge.And I am getting to direct Karthi , Vishal and Sayesha Sehgal. Karthi, as you know, is one of the most promising actors. Vishal, I’ve directed in Vedi 2011.And Sayesha is the legendary Saira Banuji’s niece. It’s exciting to enter a new world with them.I’m enjoying every bit of it.”
