When I first saw the film Nee Valle... Nee Valle... (Unnale... Unnale... in Tamil), I was impressed and I tried to get in touch with the hero. However, with the abrupt demise of the cameraman and director Jeeva, and since I didn't have any other contact within the Tamil film industry, it was became impossible for me to locate him. Then, M.S. Raju started his Vaana and I heard that Vinay signed the film, I was glad that that he got a good banner for a launchpad into Telugu Cinema. When I called him to chat, he was in the middle of shooting in Madurai and agreed to talk after 9:30 p.m. the same day. Thanks to his considerate attitude, we spoke at length even so late in the night. Presented below are the excerpts of our telephonic conversation, exclusive to TeluguCinema.Com visitors:
Sri: How did you come into the filmdom? You are Kannada-speaking but how is that you debuted in Tamil?
Vinay: Actually, I am not Kannada-speaking. I am from Karnataka - basically from Mangalore - and my mother tongue is Tulu, not Kannada. My father is a businessman and I have a younger brother. I was into modeling and seeing me in ads, Jeeva sir offered me the film and I signed on the dotted line right away.
Sri: You're also a rugby player, right?
Vinay: I was a rugby player, yeah! I represented Karnataka at the national level for five years, and I even represented India in 2001 in the sport. (As we were speaking, Vinay was still on the sets and an assistant approached him. He spoke to the assistant in fluent Tamil.)
Sri: I thought you didn't know much Tamil, since you were not a native of Tamilnadu!
Vinay: I learnt Tamil in this one year. Chennai had been my second home for the last one year and a half. Well, in fact, I was actually living out of one bag during all this time, having to travel a lot (laughs).
Sri: So, how did you get your first chance and break?
Vinay: After my post graduation, I started doing modeling and did some commercials. Like I said, Jeeva sir saw them and offered me the lead role in the Tamil flick Unnale... Unnale.... The film became a hit and I got noticed by others too.
Sri: Unnale... Unnale... had Sada and Tanisha, and both of these had previous experience in acting, unlike you. How was it working with them?
Vinay: Though Sada and Tanisha were seniors on the silver screen, they didn't show any egos and I didn't have any problems because of it. They were very cooperative and we enjoyed the whole shooting. It was because of Jeeva sir, who handled it all very well.
Sri: How did the film Vaana happen?
Vinay: After Unnale... Unnale..., my manager informed that M.S. Raju sir enquired about my dates and we spoke eventually. I was very happy that I am debuting in telugu with the production house like Sumanth Arts and agreed immediately to do his film.
Sri: Did you watch the Kannada original (Mungaaru Male) before accepting the film?
Vinay: I don't watch many Kannada or Hindi films. In fact, the only Kannada films that I watched are those telecasted long back. Even among those, I generally watch the films of the golden era... Rajkumar sir's films. After that, I stopped watching films. In fact, I don't know many Telugu stars either... excepting Chiranjeevi gaaru, Balakrishna gaaru, Venkatesh gaaru, Nagarjuna gaaru, Siddharth, etc. I do not know much about others. In fact, it was after I accepted Vaana that I saw Nuvvostanante Nenoddantaanaa...! and Okkadu.
Sri: So, what type of films do you watch mostly?
Vinay: Mostly English films, you could say. I like Francis Coppola's films. I like Gregory Peck. Recently, I watched Sleepers and sting. My all-time favorite is Born on Fourth of July.
Page 2: About Vaana
