Eega success is nothing but the vision of SS Rajamouli: Sudeep

Sudeep, who is the newborn star of South India, is on cloud nine with the overwhelming response for his recently released movie Eega directed by ace filmmaker SS Rajamouli. What has surprised him is the praises that he is receiving from legends of Indian cinema.

The actor, who is also known as Kiccha, spoke to Oneindia about Eega success, his excitement, and SS Rajamouli. Here are the excerpts from the interview:

You are the newborn superstar of South India. How are you feeling about this now?
The word 'superstar' is too big to describe me. I am really excited about the success of my film Eega. More than the stardom, I am enjoying the love being showered by the people, which is making me too emotional. It's a dream come true for anybody. I have been working on this for a very long time. You always feel good when the legends from the industries call you to wish and praise your performance. It is not an award but the biggest reward for an actor. I am not bothered or excited about the stardom. I always dreamt of my film being watched by entire world and Eega has made it possible. All this happened because of SS Rajamouli.

What do you think is the major reason behind the success of Eega?
The success of Eega is nothing but the vision of SS Rajamouli. He did not make a fly superhero nor gave a superpower, rather made a story keeping the physicalities of fly in mind. There is not any larger-than-life characters. The entire team worked on his belief and vision. His clarity on the subject and hard homework put in by the team are the reason behind the success of Eega. The second main reason for the success is producers, who believed in the concept. Normally, producers shell out a large amount of money when they make films with stars but a script of this kind demands courage. We are grateful to Suresh Babu and Sai, who were supportive and confident on our product from the day one.

Did you ever believe that Eega might become such a massive hit considering that it is not a regular film?
To be frank, I never had any expectation, as it is an unusual concept. But I believed in SS Rajamouli and what he was doing. I also felt that the film might be a hit if youth and family audience like the subject. Probably, we all were expecting it considering the amount of hard work we have put in. We are all happy that people, media and everybody have loved it. We cannot get success by bribing people and it should happen naturally. People in India are proud of this film because it is now being discussed on international platforms. It has become a world cinema now. American journalists are writing reports on Eega and hats off to one man Rajamouli who made it possible.

On hearing good words from leading stars...
Rajinikanth, Mahesh Babu, Nagarjuna, Surya, Puri Jagannath, Ravi Teja, VV Vinayak and a few others have called me and praised my work. When we get calls from them, we feel proud of ourselves. We are not holding premieres and getting good word-of-mouth, but they themselves are watching the movie and praising it. I am blessed now to receive such wonderful words from the legends. It is a wonderful phase of my life. I think it is all the hard work that has paid.