South superstar Chiranjeevi says at the age 63, it was difficult for him to do action scenes for his upcoming film "Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy" but in the end, he thoroughly cherished the experience.
The actor plays freedom fighter Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy in the Surender Reddy-directed film. His son and actor Ram Charan has produced the movie through his banner Konidela Production Company.
"It was a challenge. Ram Charan and Surender made me work hard. While I was hearing the subject, I was like, 'We can have a duplicate or morph my face and do the action bit'.
"But these guys did not compromise and made me do the fight scenes. I had a bad shoulder that I got operated but then also, they made me do fight and horse riding scenes. But I did cherish this experience and enjoyed doing the film. I saw the result and I am hopeful people will cherish it too," Chiranjeevi told reporters at the Hindi teaser launch of the film.
The project marks his comeback of sorts in the Hindi cinema and Chiranjeevi said he is yet to be offered a proper content that he could do here.
"I don't know why this gap has come. I did not get proper content to come back. I had stopped acting, when I went into politics, so for ten years I was there. Then again from 2016-2017 I started working. With this film, I felt I should come back to Bollywood.
"Since I have a beautiful content with me, I felt this is the best time to come back to Bollywood and other Indian languages," he added.
Chiranjeevi had taken a sabbatical from acting to join politics and he believes that during that time, cinema changed a lot.
"In ten years time, I have seen a lot of changes in films. When I was doing my 150th film, I felt like a newcomer as the scenario was different. In theatres, projectors have gone away but the heritage and sentiment doesn't change. However, it is the emotion and soul that carries a film ahead."
"Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy", which also features Sudeep, Vijay Sethupathi, Jagapathi Babu, Nayanthara, Tamannaah and Anushka Shetty, will release countrywide on October 2 in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu.
Chiranjeevi said they decided to the film for the pan-India audience because the story deserved to be told to the people.
"It is an untold story of an unsung hero, so I wanted to bring this content as pan-India because all the Indians should know about Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy. I feel it is my responsibility is to make it. This story was lying with me since almost a decade and a half.
"Because of the budget constraints I couldn't dare to make this film earlier. Now Charan and Surender Reddy came to make it at the pan-India level. I am so happy as my dream came true," he added.
Charan, who was made his acting debut in Bollywood with the remake of "Zanjeer", said he is waiting for the right script to come his way.
"I have not shied away from (Hindi cinema). For me, it is all about content. Coming with a great content matters the most. Hopefully, I am coming (to Bollywood) with S S Rajamouli's next project 'RRR'. Hopefully that will be my next project," he said.
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