When actor Kiran Abbavaram begins this interview at his office in Film Nagar, Hyderabad, soon after a press conference, one expects him to come up with repetitive answers, since he has been promoting his new Telugu film, Dilruba, for a while. But he speaks candidly, taking stock of the highs and lows in his brief career.
Dilruba, the romance drama directed by Viswa Karun, starring Kiran and Rukshar Dhillon, comes months after the smash hit KA. Kiran had entered Telugu cinema with Raja Vaaru Rani Gaaru, a breezy small town romance, in 2019. He had witnessed sudden recognition with his initial few films and later went through a rough phase.
KA, he acknowledges, was a turning point. “I did short films and entered cinema as an independent producer. I was creatively involved and had a clear idea of my first two films. Later, I worked with bigger production houses. I am glad I got those opportunities. But I realised that I could not just go to the sets and perform, without having a 360-degree involvement.”
Kiran says he was juggling multiple films, working without a break and did not realise that the films were not shaping up as expected. “I had to pause, rethink my approach and that is when KA happened.”
Kiran Abbavaram in ‘Dilruba’
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Special Arrangement
The last 20 minutes of KA made it one of the most discussed films of 2024. The film witnessed an overwhelming response from audiences, with many taking care not to reveal the climax on social media. “We live in times when people have status messages that reveal a film’s climax. Luckily that did not happen with KA. The audiences owned our film,” Kiran says with a smile.
Stories like KA are rare to come by. Kiran, who listens to at least two story ideas a day, says aspiring directors who hail from different towns are brimming with interesting ideas. “Some may not be good narrators or may not know how to flesh out an interesting idea into engaging screenplays. This is where guidance is needed.”
Kiran discloses that he likes to announce a film and market it only when it is nearly 80% complete, going against the current trend of announcing project launches with a bang on social media. “We followed that method for Raja Vaaru… and SR Kalyana Mandapam,” he says, reflecting on the outcome of those films. “We promoted Raja Vaaru… in 60 colleges across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and got a lot of appreciation from critics. But unfortunately, it did not bring in the crowds. We attempted a close-to-reality romance musical, something on the lines of Premam but rooted in Telugu culture. Till date I don’t understand why the film did not work at the box office. So with SR Kalyana Mandapam, we took a ‘massy’ route.”
That, perhaps, explains the portrayal of romance, some of which came under criticism. Kiran weighs in, “Maybe 20% of the audience did not like a few scenes; the idea was to show the interactions between two boisterous characters. We did not knowingly cross a line. In fact, I came under more criticism for some of my next films.”
All those learnings, he says, made him opt for a more sensitive portrayal of women in his recent films. “In Dilruba, there will be nothing that women would object to,” he affirms. The story rides on the idea of not looking at a former girlfriend with hatred and instead, operates from a space of mutual respect.
“Dilruba was pitched to me in 2021 and filmed in 2023. After the release of KA, we revisited the film to make a few corrections and ensure that nothing looked stale. Filmmaking is constantly evolving in its portrayal of characters and technical details such as colour grading. People want to see younger actors like me doing something new.”
Kiran also hopes that the audiences will see a mature actor in him in Dilruba. He is aware of the criticism that some of his portrayals lacked variation. “There have been times when I have not been fully convinced with a scene, but did it because the director believed in it. And it showed on screen. Also, I think I had portrayed diverse characters in my first three films. I was an innocent guy in Raja Vaaru…, an extrovert in SR… and a man with night blindness in Sebastian P.C. 524. After this, the other films may have come across as monotonous.”
Since the turnaround with KA, Kiran is confident that he is on the right track.
Published – March 13, 2025 11:37 am IST
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