My sons don’t like my dance

Ever since he shifted base to Mumbai, actor-filmmaker Prabhudeva has been missing in action in South for a while but that has changed with ‘Abhinetri,’ in which he is cast opposite Tamannaah Bhatia. Shot in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil simultaneously, the October 7 release also marks the nimble-footed’s first tryst with production.

“I liked the story. The film was supposed to be done by another hero but since things didn’t work out from his end, director AL Vijay and my producer friend Ganesh insisted that I do that part. Since I was free at that point of time, I said why not,” he recalls, admitting that he never planned his career.

“I was choreographing ‘Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana’ song in ‘Varsham’ when producer MS Raju asked whether I’ll direct a film for him. I said yes to him in five seconds. Likewise, starting a production house too was an impulsive call. When Ganesh said that he’ll start a banner under my name, I said go on.”

‘Abhinetri’ is a horror comedy and Prabhu is aware of the fact that Telugu audience had been bombarded with such films, of late especially!

“It is new to me. It has been my long pending wish to direct a horror comedy but I couldn’t. I’m happy that I’m at least acting and producing a horror-comedy. It’s a paisa-vasool entertainer with an underlying message. I play a guy who looks for a modern wife but gets to marry a village belle because of his father. But after some time he falls in love with the wife and the story takes a turn when a star (played by Sonu Sood) enters her life,” Prabhu reveals, admitting that a ghost does exist in the story but the camera will not show her.

He says that while it was easy on the actor’s part to shoot in three languages, it took a toll on the technical team, especially director Vijay.

“He is going mad with the post-production. It is the same reason why he recently said that he would not do trilingual’s henceforth. He and his team are not getting time to sleep. While filming he felt it was tough but he recently confided in me that shooting was easy compared to post-production,” Prabhu laughs.

One of the most sought-after directors in Bollywood presently, Prabhu points out that when he acts he doesn’t dole out any directorial tips to the director.

“After being in the industry for so long, I’m aware of what my job is. Since I produced ‘Abhinetri,’ I was aware of the story, at least! In case of both ‘ABCD’ parts, I just landed on the sets and did whatever director Remo (D’Souza) wanted me to. I trust people.”

For the past many years, Prabhu, who would start his next directorial in December, has been selective when it comes to choreographing for others. In fact, he even refrained from choreographing for his own directorial ventures. But he admits missing choreography.

“It’s still my first love and still gives me a high.” Recently, there were reports about Chiranjeevi’s ‘Khaidi No150’ team keen on Prabhu choreographing a song. True? “I wasn’t approached by the team but if they do indeed, I’m ready to do a song. Chiranjeevi is my favourite dancer.”

Ever since he started choreographing for films, before turning actor and later director, Prabhu has maintained the same physique. Ask him how and the 42-year-old informs that he is a vegetarian and doesn’t take food after seven in the evening.

“I still get excited when it comes to smaller things in life. I get excited when I wear a new dress, when I taste a chocolate and when I go to a film. My mind is the way it was when I started off and may be it reflects on my body.”

On a different note, Prabhu insists that he wants his children two boys to be good human beings first, before they achieve anything in life.

“I’m not a good human being, so I’m the right person to advise them on how to conduct themselves to be good,” he smiles, revealing that his children are not into dance. “They don’t like dance, especially my dance.” Well, that’s surprising!