The Warriorr: Bilingual beginning for Ram Pothineni

Telugu actor Ram Pothineni, who is making his Tamil debut with Lingusamy’s bilingual, The Warriorr, has dubbed for himself. For the first time, he will don the khaki, as well. “I had been wanting to play a cop for a long time, but the scripts that I listened to were quite similar. In fact, there had been months I had gotten five cop stories in a row,” he says. Then, what made him sign The Warriorr? “It was Lingusamy's narration, and his script had a soul in it,” Ram smiles.

The actor says the film was inspired by true events. "The story behind why this character became a cop was very interesting," Ram says, adding he connected to that pretty much. Although Ram Pothineni is an established actor in Telugu cinema, he grew up in Chennai and was to make his debut in a Tamil film.

In an interview with a leading English daily, Ram recalled that he had done a short film titled Adayalam in 2002, which fetched him the Best Actor award at the Europe Film Festival. Following this, he received offers from Aascar Ravichandran and director Shankar. “But then, Telugu director-producer YVS Chowdary came down to Chennai and insisted that I act in his film and took me to Hyderabad.”

Ram says he couldn't refuse as Chowdary was the equivalent of Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Tollywood.

The actor thanks his fans for showering him with love, and adds how they inspired him to move forward when he was down with a minor spinal injury.

“I was working out twice a day to build my body in a month and hurt myself. It took me more than three months to recover!”

Further, Ram adds, there was a point in time when the doctor asked him if cinema was more important to him than his life. “I did not have an answer because cinema is my life. I was down but then I read the messages sent by fans on social media, wishing me well. I wanted to bounce back just for them!”

While Krithi Shetty, who made her debut in Tollywood with Uppena, in 2021, plays the female lead, Aadhi Pinisetty (of Eeram fame) plays the antagonist. The film marks Ram Pothineni’s 19th film. Srinivasaa Chitturi is producing The Warrior, under Srinivasaa Silver Screen banner, and Devi Sri Prasad is scoring the music.