Vijay Deverakonda on Liger: On first day, I wanted the shoot to go on

Vijay Deverakonda

Vijay Deverakonda enjoys the rare privilege of having a wide fan base in Mumbai even before he has made his Bollywood debut. The South star has been working on Liger, the multilingual that marks his foray into Hindi cinema. While the pandemic had put the brakes on the shoot of the Karan Johar and Puri Jagannadh production last March, the team resumed work in Mumbai last month with renewed zeal.

"Before the pandemic, I was working such long hours that I used to look forward to pack-up so that I could go home and sleep. But [when we resumed work], I only wanted to be on set. On the first day [of resumption], I wanted the shoot to go on. We filmed some portions in Mumbai, followed by a song in Goa," says Deverakonda, who is currently on a short break as the production team is erecting a set at Film City in Goregaon for the next schedule. The actor, an ambassador for Breezer Vivid Shuffle, adds, "We will also have a schedule abroad. The location is uncertain yet; we were considering Europe initially, but now Abu Dhabi is an option."

Deverakonda with the Liger team

The Jagannadh-directed venture, also starring Ananya Panday, sees the Arjun Reddy star as a boxer. Tell Deverakonda it's impressive that he has maintained the ripped physique throughout the lockdown, and he quips that it has less to do with discipline and more with the prevailing uncertainty. "I worked out every single day through the lockdown. Initially, we felt the [stay-at-home] period will end in three months; then we assumed it would be six months. So, the uncertainty helped in [being shoot-ready]. Had I known the lockdown would last for a year, I would have stopped working out," he laughs.

With the Bollywood debut vehicle comes the responsibility of brushing up on his Hindi. The actor is unfazed about the task at hand. "I did a film in Tamil [NOTA] despite not knowing the language. I have grown up in Hyderabad where everyone speaks [a smattering] of Hindi, so mouthing Hindi dialogues wasn't too hard. My character offers me the chance to play around with the language."