Chennai has special place in my heart:Rana

He’s hot, he’s smart and comes from a family of achievers. Meet Rana Daggubati, who is now all set to make his mark as an actor in Tollywood with Leader, a film directed by ace director Shekhar Kammula and produced by two persons held in high regard by the Tamil film industry, M Saravanan and M S Guhan.
Says the actor, “Leader is a realistic political drama. At the same time, the film also has aspects that fulfill commercial requirements.”Leader has triggered interest for several reasons — one, it has Rana, the grandson of movie moghul D Ramanaidu, and two, because it is a Shekhar Kammula film which has music by upcoming music director Mickey J Meyer.
Disclosing more details about his role in the film, Rana says, “I play a young politician in the film —someone who works to make a change in the system.Honestly speaking, what made me choose this film was its script. I was completely floored by it. The five to six years that I worked in a corporate firm helped me play this role to perfection. My character in the film has altruistic qualities that anyone would like to see in a politician.” Talking about the experience of working with Shekhar, he adds, “I like to work with directors who change genres and this genre is new to even Shekhar Kammula. Shekhar is a very simple person to work with and I’ve known him from the time I turned producer.”
Rana, who has an interesting past, seems to be a master of all trades. The man, who initially spent a considerable amount of time pursuing photography in a popular institute in Chennai, then turned to producing documentaries and ad films. His very first film as a producer — A belly full of dreams — fetched him the National Award for Best Film.
Rana also has, to his credit, successfully established a concern dealing with picture enhancement technology. And apart from undergoing training as a stunt director at AFW, New Jersey, he has also studied acting at a popular school in Mumbai.
Although Rana is making his debut in Tollywood, he is as much a Chennai boy as he is a Hyderabadi. Talk about his connection with Chennai and the smile on his face broadens.
Says the actor, who can speak decent Tamil, “Chennai has a special place in my heart. I was born here and did my schooling here as well. I come here often.”
In fact, both the actor, whose birthday falls on December 14, and his uncle Venkatesh, whose birthday falls on December 13, were in Chennai on their birthdays this year.
Now that Leader is ready to hit the screens, what are his future plans?
“I’ve begun looking at scripts. I want to do a film that’s different. I’m looking at scripts that can go bilingual,” he says with a smile and signs off.