Skanda is a film that will take you back to your roots: Ram Pothineni

Named after the Hindu God of War Karthikeya, Ram Pothineni’s Skanda: The Attacker, with Sreeleela and Saiee Manjrekar as the female leads, promises to be a high-octane action drama. The iSmart Shankar star credits blockbuster director Boyapati Srinivas, who last directed the 2021 film Akhanda, for what he reckons will be a career-defining role. Talking about it, Ram says, “Boyapati garu watched all my films before conceiving this role for me.Take whatever character I’ve played in the past and multiply it with a hundred and you will get Rudrakanti Bhaskar.”
“From the trailer, Bhaskar looks like a complex and well-rounded character – both a hero and an antihero, who is capable of great love and loyalty, but will not hesitate to unleash great violence when necessary. He is a very rooted guy with a strong sense of justice and loyalty to his family. He will do whatever it takes to protect his loved ones,” explains the actor.
And Ram pulled out all the stops to bring the character to life. “The director gave me a simple brief: ‘Every punch I throw must feel like the ram of a bulldozer!’ I put on 12 kilos to assume the physicality needed to carry off the task convincingly,” he says, adding “I changed everything about myself, from my hair to my clothes and the way I moved, to fit the role.” Ram believes the USP of the film is its story. “Skanda is a film that will take you back to your roots,” he says, adding, “I’m very excited and curious to see how the audience react to it.”
Produced by Srinivasaa Chitturi, Pavan Kumar under Srinivasaa Silver Screen, Skanda releases today.