Hyderabad, April 16: He’s the hottest hunk to have detonated over Bollywood of late. All 6 feet three inches of this tall dark boy with Deccani ooze a raw appeal.
If you hadn’t heard of Rana Daggubati, you are in all likelihood, from northern India. And you have company. Koel didn’t know of him either till he joined her on her couch.
He was in a major mainstream movie (Rohan Sippy’s Dum Maro Dum ) with bona fide Alisters.
Yet I’d never seen him before.” A Google search later, Koel was wiser by 12,80,000 links that popped up against Rana’s name within 0.08 seconds.
Though he is to the manor born — part of southern royalty, which includes his producer- grandfather Rama Naidu and superstar uncle Venky — Rana didn’t jump headlong into acting, choosing instead to run a post- production company for five years.
What put him off that line of work, he says, is that with time, he realised he was running a “ sweat shop” with 180 employees.
He made another unusual choice — of debuting in an offbeat Telugu political drama, Leader ( 2010). Rana soon found himself catapulted to demigod status. Being part of the Naidu family cut out the sure struggle for him. But it wasn’t exactly a cakewalk for him. After all, lineage helps, but it is “ a double- edged sword,” for every person blessed with the ‘ right’ gene pool carries the excess baggage of raised expectations.
He could not afford to fail in his first film.
Though Leader is his only released film till date, Rana has found another field to play in: Mumbai. “ Other southern stars wait till they’ve done 20- odd films in the south before making a play for the cutthroat world of Bollywood. Not Rana,” writes Koel. Whether his second film, Dum Maro Dum , sets the box- office on fire or not, Koel says Rana is already “ a burning rage”. And that is precisely why Rana had to be on her couch. “ I had a duty,” Koel continues, “ to ensure that all of us ignorant sods who live on the other side of the Vindhyas went from who to wow.” And girls, for those of you who fancy the strapping youngster from Hyderabad, there is news: Rana is single.
He’d have you believe that the rumours about him and Bipasha Basu are, well, just rumours.
“ Bipasha is someone I have never met before the film,” he says. And he insists his linkups with her are not about film publicity. “ It’s very sad that when you go out to promote a film, the focus goes away from the product and gets to the promoters,” he says.
Of his believed- to- be girlfriend, Shriya Saran, Rana sticks to the tried and tested we- are- just- friends line, adding that he was a line producer when she debuted in the industry. Rana also says he is ready to mingle. What are you waiting for, girls?