Ram Pothineni: I was extremely reluctant to take up cop stories before The Warriorr

Ram Pothineni is always known to be a bundle of energy on and off screen but not many credit him for being an effortless performer with action and humour. And who better than a filmmaker like N Lingusamy to tap into his potential? Their first collaboration, The Warriorr, a Tamil-Telugu bilingual hits theatres across the globe on July 14. The actor spoke at its pre-release event on Sunday.

“There was a phase where I was listening to a series of cop films and none of them offered me anything different. I almost decided to stay away from cop stories for the time being. Then, Lingusamy sir was in Hyderabad to give me a narration but he didn’t tell me it was a cop script too. When the narration began, I thought I would politely reject it but he didn’t give me a chance,” Ram said.

Sharing that the script was special in more ways than one, the actor mentioned, “The story of Satya was so inspiring and emotional that I was compelled to take it up. I don’t generally tweet anything about the scripts I take up but for the first time, I did it for The Warriorr. The character is inspired from several real-life incidents and I learnt a lot about cops through the making.”

“Generally, anything that’s not in our hands, we leave it to God. However, these (cops) are people who go to any length to fulfill their ambition and it motivated me a lot. I suffered an injury while prepping up for my role and was out of action for a few months. It was the messages from fans and their unconditional love that helped me go out of the way and give my best for the film,” he further elaborated.

Opening up on his love for his fans, Ram felt he was nothing without them. “When I’m asked to choose between them and me, I realise what am I without their love? I heard many suffered injuries during The Warriorr’s promotional event in Anantapur, I request you to go to your homes safely. Devi Sri Prasad is working tirelessly for our film and asked to convey his best wishes for all here.”

Krithi Shetty plays the female lead in The Warriorr that also stars Aadhi Pinisetty, Nadhiya, Akshara Gowda, to name a few. The film is bankrolled by Srinivasaa Chitturi under Srinivasaa Silver Screen, cinematographed by Sujith Vassudev and edited by Navin Nooli.