Anand Deverakonda on Baby: I was unsure how single-screen crowds would react to my performance

Anand Deverakonda, who scored a hit on OTT with Middle Class Melodies back in 2020, has tasted his first theatrical success with Baby, the love triangle directed by Sai Rajesh. Vaishnavi Chaitanya, Viraj Ashwin co-starred him in the film produced by SKN under Mass Movie Makers. After registering a fantastic opening of Rs 7 crore, the actor expressed his happiness at the film’s success meet today.

“After the premieres, media went out of the way to applaud us, discussing several scenes and the efforts we put into the film, at length. I’ve heard that Baby is one of the biggest openers in the small/medium budget film category and it’s a big win for us. All the lead actors are fairly new to audiences and they’re yet to get used to our work; it’s great to see them owning up to our work,” he said.

“People are finding our numbers, messaging us on social media, phones. While it’s practically difficult to respond to all of them, I can’t thank you enough. I am habituated to watching my films in a multiplex on the release day but the single screen experience, when we went to theatres yesterday, was new. I was slightly unsure about how audiences would react to my performance,” Anand shared.

From the lighthearted sequence to the intense interval segment and the emotional moments in the second half, audiences are relating to the film immensely, he stated. “Even after a nine-minute sequence nearing the climax, audiences clapped and we got emotional. I agree that the film is bold but it’s a story that most of the audiences have experienced it at some point in their lives.”

The beauty of the director Sai Rajesh’s writing is its unpredictability - you can’t guess how would a character react to a situation, Anand felt. “Our cinematographer MN Balreddy, at the premiere, told that the response is yet to sink in and it’ll probably take us a week to understand what we’ve made. There are high expectations from our composer Vijai Bulganin already.”