I feel that it is time for me to grow as an actor: Sunil Shetty

On the eve of the release of his latest film Red Alert- The War Within, Sunil Shetty confesses to Jyothi Venkatesh that he feels that it is time for him to grow as an actor and do serious cinema, now that he has been appreciated for his performance in the film by his peers.

Tell me about your character in Red Alert- The War Within!
Red Alert - The War Within directed by Ananth Mahadevan and produced by T.P. Aggarwal is a true story though it has been scripted. Narsimha is a real life character, who actually lived in Tamil Nadu. Bullet for Bullet is a wrong presumption that we have about Naxalites.

I feel that it is high time that our government thought of adopting villages which have the problem of the basic necessities. It is indeed very sad that we give aid to foreign countries, but give a blind eye and a deaf ear to the problems faced by the villagers in our own country.






Would you say that it is the best role in your career till date?
From the point of view of the character, I should confess that my role as Narsimha in Red Alert-The War Within is one of the best that I have played in my career as an actor because it shows the great journey of the character from being just a simple farmer to a Naxalite with a gun in his hand.

What intrigued me about the character of Narsimha is that it is a very powerful one and yet weak physically. I am very confident about the film working, because you will not see me as Sunil Shetty but as Narsimha.

How tough was the role for you as an actor?
I would even go to the extent of stating that though mentally it was not tough, physically it was more challenging to play the role. Every day I had to walk for one hour to the jungle along with the other actors to get to the location which was a dense jungle, which was located in the outskirts of Tirupati.

At the end of the day, I was totally exhausted. Besides the fact that I had to wear a lungi for my character, itching small particles of dust used to fall from the trees and we in turn, really itched to go back to our hotel to have a shower every day.

After working in the film, are you now able to understand the gravity of the problems of the Naxalites?
After acting in the film Red Alert- The War Within, as a Naxal, I have realised that the government does not plough back the taxes which it collects from the common men for our benefit.

Naxalism is a big issue plaguing the country today but then I feel that while you can easily combat terrorism, you cannot combat when it comes to the thought and hence it is not just a problem which has to be faced by the government but every one of us in the country.