Vijay Sethupathi at his earnest best

Vijay Sethupathi’s presence during the pre-release event of Uppena is something many non-Telugu actors should take a leaf out of. The humility with which he spoke, his effort to talk Telugu even while claiming he’s not good with the language (or even English) and his childlike happiness of seeing Telugu crowds cheering for him, showed why Vijay Sethupathi is one of a kind. Uppena is Sethupathi’s second straight Telugu film after Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy and certainly not the last that he has to offer to Telugu cinema.

“I am a big fan of Sukumar. The kind of love and respect that Chiranjeevi garu has for me, right from Sye Raa to today, is immense. I’ll always be grateful for that. Vaishnav and Krithi are burning with the desire to learn and it is that hunger you always need as an actor to grow. Buchi Babu narrated the entire script to me in Telugu and the dialogues were beautiful,” he said.

Given the reasonable familiarity that the actor has with the language, it’s surprising that the makers of Uppena chose a stereotypical villain’s voice to dub for Sethupathi in the Godavari slang. Vijay Sethupathi has time and again mentioned in the event that he understands Telugu well. So many North Indian villains have minted lakhs out of Telugu cinema without making a sincere effort to learn the language and this is a welcome change in trend. 

All said and done, it’s incredibly gutsy of a lead actor with an impressive market in Tamil has decided to play the role of a heroine’s father in a Telugu film. One hopes Telugu cinema gives him worthy roles that do justice to his talent in the coming years and of course, the opportunity to dub for himself.