While everywhere there is a debate on making Hindi a national language and linguistic diversity, Adivi told IANS that India is a country of many languages.
“I think it’s important to remember that India is a glorious, diverse country with many languages. I don’t think we officially have a national language according to the Constitution. And I’d like for it to remain that way. Of course, we still made ‘Major’ in Hindi because we really know that it’s the most widely spoken language in India, and we wanted the most widely spoken language to see the life of major Sandeep Unnikrishnan.”
He shared the kind of response he received in different cities and a few moments that are even bigger than getting Oscars for him.
He reminisced: “For promotion, finally we came to Mumbai and we did a screening for the National Security Guard. In fact, the NSG was opened due to the 26/11 attacks. The main gate of the NSG HQ is called ‘Unnikrishnan Dwar’. There’s also a statue dedicated to him in the centre of the campus. We did a screening for 3012 commandos and their families. It wasn’t like the other shows. Nobody was shouting. We started to feel a sense of trepidation.”
“Perhaps, we thought, there had been some mistake with the uniforms. Then, one Major came to me and told me that the Group Commander was calling. After the screening finished at 11:00 pm, I started to worry. We reached the headquarters and the NSG gave us this medal. This is from the NSG Black Cat commandos. This is probably more important than an Oscar for me, because these are the people whose job profile is exactly the same as Major Sandeep’s profile.”
“India’s army is quite elite, and the NSG is an elite part of the army. When an officer belonging to such an organisation gives something to us because this means something to them, that this is very accurate-it touches your heart and makes you realise that there are certain things that are bigger than movies,” he added.
He also spoke about the fear that if the movie is being screened ten days before its release: “Anyone can review and say negative about it on YouTube so this is a major risk factor but still we did it for the audience.”
Adivi said while portraying a character like Major Sandeep, one needs a lot of preparation not only physically but mental also.
He shared: “The effort was to understand him rather than get into the role. Moreover the movie requires a lot of weight changes that our director decided to do. From 84 Kg to 81 Kg, 79 kg to 73 kg. Back to 81 kg and again back down to 76 kg.And also I have to act like a guy who is not filmy and do the action.”
“Rather I have to actually move like a soldier and move smoothly. Or move like you’ve been training for 15 years. It’s a very difficult process. Not to mention I’m left handed and somebody like me who is left handed had to do firing with the right hand as Major Sandeep used to do. It was not at all easy.”
While talking about his future project like ‘Hit 2’ for which recently Telugu star Nani also told in an interview to the media that Adivi is a perfect choice,he briefed: “It’s Sailesh Kolanu, who created ‘Hit 1’ in Hyderabad decided that he wanted to create the sort of hit cinematic universe, where you have the few cops in different cities, right, each dealing with cold cases. So, I am the cop in Visakhapatnam. Nani wanted to make it much bigger so we have made it on a larger scale than ‘Hit 1’. I am also working on the remake of an Oscar winning movie that will be made in Telugu and Hindi.”
On the question of what kind of role he is looking forward to playing, he shared: “It really depends on how you play a character rather than genre. The only genre I don’t want to do is horror. Neither do I watch horror, nor do I want to. In horror movies, the hero never gets the credit, ” he laughed.
Adivi concluded with: “If not an actor, I would be a writer or a journalist.”
The bilingual film ‘Major’ has been shot in Hindi, Telugu and will release in Malayalam as well. It also stars Saiee Manjrekar, Revathi, Prakash Raj, Anish Kuruvilla and Murali Sharma.
Produced by Sony Pictures International Productions in association with Mahesh Babu’s GMB Entertainment and A+S Movies, ‘Major’ is directed by Sashi Kiran Tikka.
