A Jason Bourne fan, Nikhil gets a taste of acting in a spy thriller

Chennai, June 28

Tollywood star Nikhil Siddhartha, after garnering critical and commercial success, says he prepared hard and research deep for 'Spy', the movie based on the disappearance of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

The directorial debut of the acclaimed Telugu film editor, Garry Bh, 'Spy' will hit screens across the world on June 29.

The story is by the producer of the movie, K. Rajashekhar Reddy. Iswarya Menon is the female lead starring opposite Nikhil. And Rana Duggabatti of 'Baahubali' fame makes a cameo appearance.

Nikhil told IANS that he had little information on Netaji Subash Chandra Bose at the commencement of the discussions for the movie, but he researched and studied on the great freedom fighter and was overwhelmed by his life.

Without letting out much, Nikhil said the movie was an action thriller and that he had done several scenes in risky conditions during the shoot.

Nikhil said he has all along been in awe of spy movies and a Jason Bourne fan, so he had wanted to do a spy thriller.

He said: "I had always wanted to don the role of a Spy who protects the country. This movie blends history and thrills. It also talks about incidents during our independence struggle and how they affect our lives even today."

The young actor said that he had faced a lot of challenges during the shoot as there were a lot of action scenes. "The action scenes are one of the major points of the movie -- rather, they are the USP of the movie," Nikhil said. "We had shifted from hot Jordan to cold and slippery Spiti Valley and I was to ride a sports bike and chase someone on the slippery track."

He added that he did all the action scenes himself and did not do any computer graphics work because he did not want to look fake on screen.

Nikhil said that Hollywood stunt director, Robert 'Bobby' Leannen, had been roped in for the movie because the producers wanted all the action scenes to look real in the movie.

Nikhil was also fulsome in his praise of Garry Bh, who, he said, had done a tremendous job.

He added that the movie's producer, K. Rajasekhar Reddy, was a seasoned writer and he had done a detailed study on the subject.

Nikhil concluded by noting: "I am comfortable dubbing in Telugu and Hindi as I know both languages well. This is the first movie of mine dubbed in Hindi that will be shown overseas and I am thrilled because of that. After all, there's a huge Telugu diaspora in many parts of the world."