Adivi Sesh’s Major hit screens on June 3, 2022. (Photo: Instagram/adivisesh)
Actor Adivi Sesh has always maintained that his 2022 release Major is a very special film for him. The biographical drama based on the life of 26/11 hero Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan saw Sesh play the lead role in the film. As Major completes one year of its release on Saturday, Sesh looks back at the journey of playing Sandeep Unnikrishnan and how the film changed his life.
Directed by Sashi Kiran Tikka, Major was bankrolled by Mahesh Babu’s GMB Productions and A+S Movies. The film also starred Saiee M Manjrekar, Sobhita Dhulipala along with seasoned actors Revathy and Prakash Raj.
In this interview with indianexpress.com, Adivi Sesh says that being part of Major has added a lot to his life.
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“Recently, I had the opportunity to meet our former President Ram Nath Kovind ji. Everywhere I go, be it ministers, businessman, politicians, especially people in defence services, the sort of respect I get… I could have done 100 commercial blockbusters, but this is the blockbuster that gave me the respect I sought,” Sesh says.
In the course of the making of Major, the actor, who is also credited as the writer of the film, formed a close bond with Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan’s parents, who live in Bangalore.
“I think I am just most thankful for my bond with Sandeep sir’s parents. They attended my sister’s wedding. I think there is a sense of belonging. A sense that I belong to them and they are my own. I think that has largely been my biggest takeaway from Major,” he shares.
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Adivi Sesh made his acting debut with Karma, which was also directed by him. In 2016, he delivered his first hit film as a lead actor, Kshanam.
While his hit movies like Evaru and Goodachari established him in the Telugu film industry, Major marked his first pan-India release.
“I think it’s interesting because I feel introduced to Hindi audience in a very simple, clear cut manner, with an extremely big scale honourbale film. This is very different from my Telugu journey because my Telugu fans saw me as a villain in cinema first, then saw me star as lead actor in smaller films and then the films progressively got bigger. So, it’s a very different perception. Now, I am finding lot of Hindi audiences going back and looking for my Telugu films,” says the actor.
Sesh is proud of Major and feels that the film’s success has added to the diversity that South film industries have to offer.
“From Kanyakumari to Kashmir or even Kansas (the actor was brought up in the US), whoever has seen it has realised that there is not just one kind of cinema you can expect from the South. We make great love stories, we can make a war film, we can make a mass masala film, we can make a thriller and action film,” shares the actor.
Adivi Sesh is now focusing on G2, the sequel to his blockbuster film Goodachari. While details of the movie are still under wraps, one wonders if the success of Major encouraged him to make G2 a grand affair.
To this, Sesh says, “I waited this long because I wanted to make G2 a bigger film. I knew this 5 years ago that I was going to do G2 after Major.”