Exclusive: Devi Sri Prasad Shares How He Missed Out On An Opportunity To Play The Lead Role In Sukumar’s Film!

Ace music composer and singer Devi Sri Prasad is a performer in every sense and his epithet 'Rockstar' proves our point. He is currently basking in the success of his latest venture Pushpa headlined by Tollywood's Icon Star Allu Arjun. Much before the rural entertainer's grand release in theatres worldwide, its tracks were dropped on YouTube and grabbed the attention of music aficionados, who lapped it up big time. What more? All the 5 songs were acclaimed and even entered the highly coveted Global Top 100 list of YouTube's Most Liked Music Videos. And, that's huge!

Though he is more inclined towards music, he truly believes in uniqueness and taking the road less travelled. Why do we say that? Well, the music director is all set to try his hand at acting. You heard us right! Talking exclusively to Filmibeat, DSP shares about his plans on making his acting debut and reveals how he missed out on a big opportunity to play the lead role in Sukumar's film before the celebrated director finally decided to go forward with Ram Charan-Samantha Ruth Prabhu's Rangasthalam.

Sharing how things are going on, on the acting front DSP said, "A few directors and producers have been trying to get me on screen because the audience always wanted to see me, and I think its a blessing. On stage, I am a performer who dances, entertains, jokes around and make people involved in the show. So because of that energy, people always wanted to see me act. But my first priority was always music, so I didn't want to just jump into it. The pandemic has given all of us a different perspective. I think we need to do things that we are really capable of doing and it can be anything. So people kept on coming to me with stories and the producers have also been pushing me. I thought why don't I just give it a shot and see? So some things are being planned towards that. Once everything gets into solid action, I will present it."

Prasad went on to share his experience of bringing together some really talented street musicians to a reality show after his perception towards life changed post the pandemic. Calling it a dream project, he said, "Even generally also I think people should start taking things seriously. Seriously, in the sense that we have seen how the past two years were and nothing is in our hands. So once we understand that fact, we can do a lot of things which we have put on hold. Now is the time when we should do those things. I even wrote a list of things that I have been doing and why I have been doing them with all the reasons. And those reasons were so silly. Finally, we found out that we have been missing out on some really important things. So that put a light on my mind. And there is one research which I have been doing about musicians and singers who didn't have an opportunity to do things beyond the stage. So for the past 6-7 years, I have been doing that and my dream was to get them into the limelight. By the blessings of parents, guru, and God, I am in a position today where I can at least bring a few singers to the limelight. Until the first pandemic was over, whenever TV channels approached me for any reality show, I wouldn't agree, thinking that it might take more time. Later, I thought of bringing together a few street musicians. The show was named Rockstar, and I told them that I would only do the show if I can bring these singers to the limelight. So we planned a special round called the Limelight and then we brought musicians from all over India and the audience got so emotional as many were in their 60s and 70s. They have never seen such a platform in life as they lived on roads and streets. I trained them and composed a song, and for the finale, I brought them together as a band. AR Rahman was the guest for the first episode. So why am saying this is because I am glad as it was my dream which also made a lot of others dreams come true."

Revealing that Pushpa's director Sukumar was planning to cast him as the lead for one of his films before going ahead with Rangasthalam, he further said, "There are so many pending things, why can't we do that now? People have been so confident asking me to act and definitely, there will be blessings of a lot of people, so why shouldn't I do that? Why shouldn't I try it? In fact, before Rangasthalam, Sukumar sir wanted to cast me as a hero for another film. He wanted to direct with Dil Raju sir as the producer. But unfortunately, I lost my dad at that time and I was broken, so I decided to move on with another project saying that I am not in that mental state. That's how Rangasthalam happened actually. Everything happens for good. So I always believe in that. But again I would expect all the love to be showered like how it has always been for my songs."