Yash on Sanjay Dutt in KGF 2: Rocky is a monster and he needed an equally strong personality to challenge him

The anticipation for Yash’s KGF: Chapter 2 is at an all-time high, with the big budget, action thriller set to hit theatres across the world on April 14. The casting of the movie, which also has Sanjay Dutt and Raveena Tandon, has also ensured that its expectations are high, not just in the South but also across the country.

In a recent interaction with the media in Kochi, Yash spoke about why it was essential to have an actor of Sanjay’s calibre to play the menacing antagonist Adheera in the sequel of the Prashanth Neel directorial.

“He is a great actor and we needed someone with a great personality to go up against Rocky in the movie,” said Yash. “We knew Rocky that we have created is a monster. To have an equally strong personality to challenge him was very important. It was done to show the magnitude of the difficulty that Rocky will be facing and in turn show the many different shades of his character.”

The Kannada star also stressed that the reach of the first movie had a huge role to play in getting the veteran Bollywood actor to be part of the film. “Sanjay Dutt sir is a fantastic actor and on top of that he has that appeal. Also, because the boundaries between film industries are blurring and the reach of films right now, you can cast the exact actor that comes to your mind. In his case too, as the film is coming to his market, he was more than happy to do it,” he said.

However, he said Sanjay’s casting wasn’t done just for the pan-Indian appeal that it would lend to the film, especially in Hindi-speaking territories. “I won’t deny that his casting will have an impact in that market because people will relate to him more. However, that was not the sole intention. If we choose an artiste from Malayalam, it will be because he’s a talented actor and he fits the role. Before KGF, I was nobody, but the kind of respect I have received proved that if the audience likes my performance, they would appreciate and support it,” he said.

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