Nagarjuna’s Son Akhil Akkineni Wants To Continue His Family Legacy

Nagarjuna’s son Akhil Akkineni is nervous about his acting debut, despite the backing of his star family.

Akhil Akkineni with his father Nagarjuna (Photo: www.newsthere.com)

South superstar Nagarjuna’s son Akhil, the third generation actor from the Akkineni clan, talks exclusively to The Quint about the pressure that comes with the ‘star family’ tag, his eponymously titled Telugu debut film Akhil, and why it’s safe for a star scion to debut with a commercial flick.

Nagarjuna’s son Akhil is nervous about his acting debut with Akhil

Q: Your launch is being considered Tollywood’s biggest. Does that make you nervous?

<b>I’m nervous because of the high expectations. When you represent a star family, especially like the Akkineni’s, who have been around for over five decades, you’re perceived to be the best, come what may. Trust me when I say this, it’s not easy to become a star overnight. It takes years of determination, discipline and hard work. Nobody had to teach me all this because I’ve lived and continue to live among stars in my own family. I’m also nervous because it doesn’t matter who you are and where you come from, if people don’t like an actor, they’re free to write him off. It won’t matter to them if the actor comes with the star tag.</b>

<b>- Akhil Akkineni, Actor</b>

Q: Are you saying your star tag has no value at all?

<b>The star tag does have its share of merits, like non-stop flow of offers. However, even these opportunities will eventually stop when you don’t prove your mettle. Audiences have become brutally honest with their opinion. While I appreciate the red-carpet welcome into the industry courtesy my family, I’m also aware that I will be responsible for my career.</b>

Q: A few years ago, you were quite active in cricket and nobody expected you to become an actor...

<b>Cricket will always be an integral part of my life. I still play Celebrity Cricket League every year. I love the sport so much that even when I’m not playing, I’m mostly discussing it with my friends. It’s something very close to my heart but in my head I was prepared to be an actor from a very young age. I don’t say this because I come from a family of actors. Nobody forced or influenced me to be an actor. When my family has laid out the perfect platform which a lot of people dream for, I wondered how I could think about something else.</b>

Akhil Akkineni says he’ll try to live up to the ‘star family’ tag

Q: Your debut film is titled after your own name. A marketing gimmick?

<b>The title means ‘universe’. The film deals with a conspiracy to cause a catastrophe to the universe and since my name also means the same, we decided why not make it the film’s title. We toyed with so many titles but finally zeroed in on <i>Akhil</i>, as we felt it was apt and will remain special as it also happens to be my name.</b>

Q: Going by the promos, it looks like a full-fledged commercial flick. Is that a calculated move?

<b>The reason I chose to do a commercial flick is to let audiences accept me the way they want to see me. I admit I’m playing it safe, but I plan to take bigger risks in the future. For now, I want to be accepted like the way my father and brother have been embraced. Once I make my mark and earn the love of the people, I’ll do the kind of films I want to do and even experiment with different kind of scripts. I’ve studied method acting and I want to use it extensively at some point in my career. Although <i>Akhil</i> is an out-and-out commercial film, it has a lot of soul. It’s been made on a very large canvas by director V.V Vinayak, who’s known for churning out blockbusters.</b>

Q: You spent quite a lot of time prepping for your debut. How important was this process?

<b>In southern filmdom, every actor from a star’s family is expected to be really good in dance and fights. Since I was mentally prepared to be an actor, I started training since I was 15. I learnt martial arts in Thailand, took acting classes from Los Angeles and spent the last four to five years of my life training rigorously. As southern stars, the benchmark is simple – you need to do everything to entertain the masses and I realized this very early, so I prepared myself accordingly.</b>

Q: You’re already popular thanks to two big brand advertisements. How tough is it to manage all the attention?

<b>Ever since I started playing cricket and making public appearances, my privacy had gone out of the window. I quickly came to terms with it and realized it was part and parcel of this lifestyle and there’s nothing I could do about it. It becomes tough when you start taking everything to heart and thinking about what you read in papers. Having been raised in this family, I think it has been naturally imbibed in me, that I can’t let public attention bother me.</b>

Q: Now that you and your brother (Naga Chaitanya) are into full-fledged acting, do you think your father (Nagarjuna) should retire?

<b>I want him to continue acting as long as he can. He’s 56, but he looks like a 26-year old. If fans still like watching him on screen, why should we expect him to stop acting?</b>

The film releases in theatres across the country on Diwali, November 11th.