Rana Daggubati shared this picture. (courtesy: ranadaggubati)

Mumbai:

He has lived with tales from the Amar Chitra Katha since he began studying and now comes the time to deepen his relationship with the comedian guide writer, says actor-producer Rana Daggubati whose subsequent movie is on demon king Hiranyakashyap. The pan-India movie, impressed by an Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) comedian, will see him play the king from Hindu mythology. It is backed by his VFX and manufacturing firm Spirit Media.

“My association with Amar Chitra Katha personally has been from the time I first started reading properly as a kid. I was pretty young when these comics came to me from my mom. I’ve lived with those stories. All of these stories have somehow inspired me to be an actor and a filmmaker,” Rana Daggubati advised PTI in an interview.

The actor-producer’s skilled affiliation with the ACK began in 2019 when he opened a studying centre, ACK Alive, in Hyderabad. His manufacturing firm Spirit Media holds a stake within the comedian guide publishing firm, which was based by the late Anant Pai and his spouse Lalitha Pai.

Rana Daggubati, who hopes to current timeless tales from the Amar Chitra Katha steady as huge display spectacles, unveiled the idea teaser of the bold Hirankashyap on the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC 2023) in July.

The 38-year-old actor stated the curiosity non-Indian audiences confirmed in ACK comics on the SDCC got here as an excellent shock.

“I was fascinated with the number of non-Indian people who knew about these stories and knew about Amar Chitra Katha… I feel stories will always keep uniting people. It doesn’t matter which culture or language you come from. We are divided by states and languages, but art unites us,” he stated.

Hiranyakashyap will revolve across the titular mythological demon king and his relentless quest to annihilate beliefs and religion of the followers of Lord Vishnu. His son, Prahlad, nonetheless, was a Vishnu devotee.

As per mythological tales, the demon king obtained a boon from the Lord Brahma that he couldn’t be killed by human or animal, inside or exterior, in day or evening, and that no weapon might hurt him. Vishnu takes the Narasimha avatar to lastly slay him.

The thought of adapting mythological and historic tales printed by ACK on movie had at all times intrigued him, the actor stated.

But it was SS Rajamouli’s two-part motion epic Baahubali, the place he performed the antagonist Bhallaldev, that gave him the arrogance to lastly greenlight “Hiranyakashyap.”

“Post ‘Baahubali’, we understood what it takes to make spectacle cinema. ACK became my natural choice because this is all I knew as a kid. All these spectacle stories need a nice way to come back to the younger world,” he added.

Citing the instance of the 1967 Telugu movie “Bhakta Prahlada”, which narrated the story of Prahlada and demon king Hiranyakashyap, Daggubati stated the movie was well-liked throughout south India. With this new model, he intends to take the story to a wider viewers, he stated.

“It is one of the few stories that cuts across the universe. It is a father and son story, and we felt that’s the right first one to pick.” According to Daggubati, mythological tales and folktales have been revered within the black-and-white period however makers later shied away from exploring the style because it demanded a sure scale.

“Today’s generation is different from the black-and-white era that watched that film. So how do you tell those stories, connect these stories? Comic books became the first reference,” he stated.

“Hiranyakashyap” is presently within the writing stage and pre-production will start subsequent 12 months in March. Trivikram Srinivas is connected as a author on the challenge.

Rana Daggubati stated they intend to show extra tales from ACK comics into motion pictures, however will give attention to just one challenge at a time.

‘Hiranyakashayap’ is the primary one and there are much more tales. We will go ahead and announce them in future. These are huge movies and demand excessive preparation,” he added.

Preeti Vyas, president and CEO of Amar Chitra Katha Pvt Ltd, termed Daggubati “the neatest” because he managed to invest in Amar Chitra Katha and has got a 500 title catalogue, which people love and admire.

“They are all able to be made into exhibits or movies,” Vyas added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)