Mrunal Thakur recalled her struggle with Telugu language when she was working on her Tollywood debut, Dulquer Salmaan starrer Sita Ramam.
Mrunal Thakur, a prominent face in the Hindi film industry, took a leap of faith and made an entry in Tollywood with Hanu Raghavapudi’s period romantic drama, Sita Ramam co-starring Dulquer Salmaan and Rashmika Mandanna.
In a recent chat with Galatta Plus, the ‘Super 30’ actress opened up on how doing a film in Telugu was initially a daunting task for her as she doesn’t speak that language.
Speaking about her earlier inhibitions to joining Tollywood, Mrunal told the publication, “I didn’t want to be in a space where I feel handicapped because when you don’t know the language, you feel restless and I kid you not, I did have moments where I wanted to give up. I have literally cried but every drop of tear has brought praise for me.”
While elaborating on her process of working on a Telugu film, the actress shared that since her mother tongue is Hindi and Marathi, her process of delivering dialogue involved all three languages known to her.
“It’s a three-language translation. Sometimes you don’t have the time to do that because suddenly the scene is written and the light is going and we don’t have the location tomorrow. So earlier I used to write a dialogue in Telugu, translate it into English because it was the only common language between my ADs and then I would translate it into Hindi or Marathi because that is my mother tongue,” Mrunal told the news portal.
Talking about playing a princess in her Telugu debut, she added, “Earlier I felt like what was more important was what mattered was the story and language was manageable but I think if you don’t know the language it gets a bit tough and since childhood, I wanted to be a princess. So, this was the best opportunity and my preparation started from childhood.”
Further, Mrunal went on to admit how she didn’t plan to do more Telugu movies after Sita Ramam and how her co-star Dulquer Salmaan thought otherwise.
Showering praise on him, she continued, “Dulquer is a God’s child. I am not shy to say that I am the president of Dulquer Salmaan fan club because that is how much I admire him. He is so dedicated and not afraid of the language. I remember I told him in Kashmir, ‘Sita Ramam is my first and last film in Telugu. I will not do any Telugu film’. He just looked at me and said, ‘We’ll see’. I think one of the reasons why I am today considering Tamil film or Kannada film is probably because of him.”
Upon Sita Raman‘s release, Mrunal received praise from every nook and corner and the film turned out to be a huge blockbuster. Eventually, the actress went on to sign two more Telugu films, Nani starrer Hi Nanna and Family Star opposite Vijay Deverakonda. The latter is slated to release in cinema halls on April 5.
