Ek Love Ya’s mixed response tells me what audiences liked and didn’t and my next film will be based on that: Raanna

Kannada cinema got a new leading man, Raanna, with director Prem’s Ek Love Ya earlier this year. The experience, he says, was quite the eye-opener, as the actor’s still trying to figure out what to take up as his next. “Ek Love Ya was a mixed bag; we got both positive and negative feedback for it. Thankfully, no one thrashed it outright, because there were some elements that appealed to everyone. But yes, the film had been designed as a showreel of what I am capable of as an actor, so, in that sense, the response has been great, and the film is hopefully the first of many more to come,” says Raanna.

Was the mixed response perhaps because people had unrealistic expectations of Prem as a director? “That’s always the case with his films. But here, despite the expectations, he had to play to my strengths, which worked to a large extent,” says the actor. So, what’s next for him, now that it’s been a couple of months since Ek Love Ya? “Nothing has been finalized, but plans are afoot for my next acting gig. Right now, there are a couple of scripts that are being worked on in-house; it will have the same team, but will not be a Prem directorial. If we do finalize one of the two, we will rope in a new director. At the same time, I am also listening to a lot of scripts. I am also new to this and, truth be told, I don’t know how things fall in place. Right now, a lot of stuff is happening – there are our own scripts and those brought in by other teams. There are also directors who will work only on their own stories and others who are open to direct third-party scripts. Two of the scripts I heard were quite good and I am not trying to figure out the best combination to go ahead with,” adds Raanna.

Since Ek Love Ya had the actor try his hand at most commercial film elements, the scripts coming to hom these days belong to a wide variety of genres. “I think I have heard every kind of script, but the problem is that I am not entirely sure why they’ve come to me. Do they firmly believe that I can pull it off or am I only one option for a script that’s been ready and waiting for takers? In fact, some of the scripts that have been narrated to me have been quite good, but I just don’t see myself ever doing something like that. I don’t know what their basis of offering it to me,” he wonders.

EK Love Ya, which is currently streaming on Zee5, had Raanna in three different shades. “Some people like the school portions with all the fluffy romance, while others preferred the action sequences. I know now that I have the option to do both types of films. But the focus will be on content-oriented films that I can do justice to. If they are also laced with typical commercial movie fare, even better,” he signs off.