Rana Daggubati bringing Leader to Bollywood

Rana Daggubati who makes his Hindi debut in Rohan Sippy's Dum Maro Dum wants to bring his Telugu political blockbuster Leader to Mumbai with subtitles.

Says Rana, "The political message of the film is definitely not restricted to Andhra Pradesh. I'd like to remake the film into Tamil and then maybe Hindi. After I do Rohan Sippy's film in Hindi, I'd like to do Leader in Hindi."

Explains Rana, "We've tried to show the difference between a politician and a leader. We need responsible leaders. I play an honest leader, a Chief Minister. We've heard so many CMs being sworn in. We didn't know what their oath means. From the time we were children we read about Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Mahatma Gandhi. Today my 5-year old nephew is studying about the same national leaders. Where are the political heroes of and for the new generation?"

Says Rana Daggubati, "My role is actually an amalgamation of a whole lot of younger politicians from Rahul Gandhi to Barak Obama. For months my laptop would be open showing profiles of international politicians. Locally my reference points were Rahul Gandhi, Milind Deora and Sachin Pilot. Today's youth - and I mean people from the age of 19 to 25 - is fully knowledge of present-day politics. They're becoming more and more politically savvy. It's a beautiful direction in which we're heading. I thought the youngsters my age would enjoy the love story. But they connect more with the politics in Leader."

Apparently, a song 'Maa Telugu Talli' in Leader had to be changed because of the current political disturbances in Andhra Pradesh.

Rana plays it safe by saying, "There were some rumours about removing the song. We did alter it during the shooting because we understand the sensitivity of the issue."