It can be difficult to accept performers in certain roles when we can clearly see how significant the difference between their off-screen persona and the characters they are portraying. We, the audience, now have access to peek into the carefully curated display of actors’ lives on social media profiles, and this, at times, makes it difficult for us to accept them doing a few simple things on screen like the rest of us. Vijay Deverakonda, the star of Kushi, for instance, can be seen travelling in chartered flights and escorted by bodyguards during the promotions of a film, in which, ironically, he is playing a humble youngster, earning 40k per month. The off-screen image of the actors can prevent us from fully believing the simplicity and normality films like Kushi need to fly high.
In an interview with Film Companion before the film’s release, the film’s writer and director, Shiva Nirvana speaks about actors like Vijay Deverakonda and Samantha and how they bring the believability factor to their roles. He says, “Actors with a perfect command and acting brilliance, will just dive into the characters and become the one so easily. Actors like Nani, Vijay Deverakonda and Samantha among others have that brilliance. It is so simple that, if the actors didn’t have that command, we wouldn’t watch them playing many different roles and succeed every time. The actors will convince us with that skill. The believability completely depends on their performance. Look at Sam garu in the film’s poster. Does she look like this in her Instagram profile? But she still manages to get into the role.”