When Vikram told me my next film will be called Gang Leader, I got super excited

Actor Nani, who is gearing up for his upcoming revenge drama

Gang leader

which releases on Friday, speaks about his character from the film and more..excerpts

How did the shoot for Gang Leader start?

Vikram and I had been thinking about different types of ideas for many days when he came up with this one day. I liked it a lot and agreed immediately. By then I had started shooting for 'Jersey', so I told him to develop the story before Jersey finished. Soon after 'Jersey' completed, we started 'Gang Leader'.

Vikram generally has a complicated screenplay in his movies...is that the case for Gang leader as well?
As far as I know, this film is the least complicated one among all his films. It's also the most entertaining of all his films.

Tell us about your character...

My character's name in this movie is Pencil Parthasarathy. Pencil is my pen name. Most of his books are written and not sold. However, he still feels that he is a very huge writer. There is more comedy than what is shown in the trailer.

Who suggested the title Gang Leader?
It was Vikram's idea. When I was practising

cricket

for the movie Jersey, Vikram came up and said that he thought of a title. When he said the title is Gang Leader, it got me excited and I agreed immediately.

What excited you about this project?
The concept of revenge is very violent in almost all movies. There will be many big dialogues and fights. However, dealing with the concept of revenge in an entertaining way is the point that really excited me. And being a revenge writer for a group of five ladies really excited me very much.

After Oh Baby! actor Lakshmi is playing another import character isn't it?

Yes! Lakshmi and Saranya will entertain with excellent comedy timing in the film. In some scenes, my comedy timing was synced to their comedy timing. In fact, they are the ones that make me love those scenes.

Reason to make Karthikeya play a negative role?

Kartikeya

's character in the movie has a lot of importance. When Vikram went and told the story to him I was sceptical about his confirmation. But once Vikram went and told the script and Karthikeya said ok I was very happy. It's a very interesting role. We thought that it will be good if a hero acts in that role. That is why we wanted some heroes for that character. Finally, Karthikeya did it. After the release of the film, there will be a lot of talk about this character.