Southern film actress Parul Yadav, who essays an important role in Ram Gopal Varma's upcoming multilingual film "Killing Veerappan", says five minutes was all she needed to agree to be part of the project.
The film, about the killer of the most wanted forest brigand, stars Kannada superstar Shivrajkumar, who is fondly called Shivanna, in the lead.
When Varma contacted Parul for the project for the first time, she hung up on him.
"I wasn't sure if it was really him. However, when I found out it was RGV, I called him back and he narrated the script. Within five minutes, I told him I'd like to be part of the project," Parul told IANS.
Slated to release on December 4 in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada, the film features debutant Sandeep Bharadwaj in the role of Veerappan.
Talking about her role, Parul, who has gained a strong foothold in Kannada industry with films such as "Govindaya Namaha", "Bachchan" and "Aatagara", said she plays a real life character in this true story.
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"My character will surprise audiences and it's based on someone who is still alive. All the characters I've played so far are fictional characters. The interesting part is that nobody knows about this girl I play," she said, adding not many people know about the character that even Shivanna is playing.
Parul, who has teamed up with Varma for the first time, considers him an institution in filmmaking.
"I watched a few scenes while shooting for the film and I had tears in my eyes. I know my limit as an actor, but RGV pushed me beyond what I'm capable of doing. I couldn't believe that I could do such good work," she added.
She also loved the way the film has been shot.
"RGV has tried to capture everything as naturally as possible and that will heighten the whole experience of watching the movie," she said, adding this is her first non-fictional film.
What also stunned Parul, besides the dedication and passion of RGV, is the amount of time he spent on research for "Killing Veerappan".
"He has been researching for nearly a decade now. He's done so much of groundwork that it was extremely easy to work. Our whole perspective on Veerappan changed after working in the film," she said.
The film is produced by BV Manjunath and co-produced by BS Sudhindra and Shivaprakash.