Salaar star Prithviraj Sukumaran calls KGF 1 quintessential Amitabh Bachchan’s 70s film

Salaar hit the big screen on December 22 and has made a roaring impact at the box office. The movie is headlined by Prabhas and marks Prithviraj Sukumaran’s return to the Telugu film industry after a 13-year-long hiatus. In a new interview, the actor opened up about his candid thoughts on KGF, the action franchise directed by Salaar maker Prashanth Neel. 

Prithviraj Sukumaran says he did not anticipate the mammoth success of KGF 

In a conversation with Film Companion, Prithviraj Sukumaran opened up about the brilliance of Prashanth Neel concerning his work in KGF. The actor admitted to having seen a few scenes of the films before he took it up for distribution, but he confessed he did not anticipate the impact it would have. He recalled, “It’s not like I saw the whole KGF 2 before it was released. I did see some portions of it (before taking it up for distribution). From that, I kind of knew that it was going to be much bigger. I expected the film to do well, yes. But I did not anticipate it to achieve what it ultimately did.” 

Talking more about the Yash starrer, Sukumaran drew comparisons of the film with the classic Hindi movie combination of Amitabh Bachchan and music duo Salim-Javed. He noted, “KGF 1, to me, was a quintessential Salim–Javed-Amitabh Bachchan 70s film that I am still a big fan of. It just blew me away in terms of styling and aesthetics; and Yash was, of course, fantastic in it.” He further stated that all filmmakers were impressed by the first part of KGF upon its release. He recalled, “Not just me, but for almost every Malayalam filmmaker, KGF 1 had a similar impact as Amal Neerad’s Mammootty-starrer Big B (2007) did. We were just completely caught off guard by somebody coming in and doing something that none of us even thought of.” Upon enquiry of which out of the two films he liked better, Sukumaran commented, “KGF 2 was a very good film… but because of how new KGF 1 was at that time, I still pick KGF 1 over 2.”

Prithviraj Sukumaran talks about the over-the-top action sequences in Salaar 

Prithviraj Sukumaran has been earning praise for his performance in Prabhas starrer Salaar. He emphasised that it was the director’s vision that made the film so big. He said, “When you hear Neel’s narration, you’re immersed in his vision. He’s sharing his perspective on how he envisions the film.” He continued, “When you hear a dialogue like ‘Violence, violence, violence. I don’t like it, I avoid. But violence likes me,’ it may not initially make sense. However, it was incredibly effective at that specific point, in that particular film, when that particular character and actor delivered it!”