Never one to undersell his strengths, Siddharth recently surprised even his most ardent fans – not to mention stars such as Kamal Hassan, Rajnikanth and even Madhuvan – by suggesting that he was as big as Shahrukh Khan in Tollywood. “I do a lot of romantic roles in Telugu films,” he says, “In fact when people say you are the Aamir Khan of Telugu films, I say I am the Shah Rukh Khan of the film industry. I do all the Tujhe dekha toh ye jaana sanam type of sequences in Telugu.”
Siddharth, still most famous for his role in Rang De Basanti, had some hits earlier in his career with Boys, Nuvvostanante Nenodantana and Bommarillu but existed in a kind of daze until the release of Striker earlier this year – the first movie to be released directly on to Youtube, which has so received nearly a million views. He is currently making Yodha with Shruti Hassan, who is rumoured to be his new muse in real life. It’s a fantasy film that also stars Shriya Sharma.
But Siddharth hopes to return to Hindi films soon. “I am starting my own production next year,” he states, “India is becoming a great country to make small, independent films that are content driven, just like Striker. These films need to be made because these big studio films with the routine song and dance and foreign locations will always be made because they are fun. But it’s important to make realistic cinema as well. I want to get into production very soon.”
