Nani's Dasara: "I Felt Happy When Keerthy Suresh First Rejected 'Vennela'," Says Debut Director Srikanth Odela

Director Srikanth Odela, who made his directorial debut with Nani's latest sensational action-packed film titled 'Dasara', has become the talk of Tollywood town. The guy, who just worked as an apprentice to one film- Sukumar's 'Nannaku Prematho' before, has taken a huge plunge as a director. His first film is exceptional because of more than one reason.

Srikanth Odela, who belongs to a rural village in Telangana dared to narrate a story to Nani. Nani, who is known for his guy-next-door image has played only loveable characters so far. It was an epic combination, according to Nani, who narrated the entire process of how he decided to work on this script by introducing Srikanth Odela to the industry.

Nani immediately got connected to the story and couldn't stop listening to Srikanth although he had other engagements on the day of the story narration. Srikanth, who doesn't know how to narrate the story was reportedly explaining the story in his language. Nani was blown away and immediately told his staff that he was doing the film.

Later, Nani gave a negligible amount of money to Srikanth, asking him to shoot two scenes from the script, to test his ability. Srikanth managed to impress Nani with the task and immediately the project was confirmed. Meanwhile, all hell broke loose when Nani suggested Keerthy Suresh as the female lead.

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Recollecting the entire situation, Srikanth said, "I wanted to go with a new face for the heroine because it is easy for me to handle one star on the set, in my first film. Nani Anna recommended Keerthy and I couldn't say no. Anyway, I went ahead and narrated the story to Keerthy, which she rejected right away. I felt very happy and was content thinking that my plans might work out. However, when Nani and Keerthy Suresh got in touch, I was asked to narrate the story again because Keerthy didn't follow my dialect the first time. She was finally on board, and my worries grew."

Now that the film is ready to hit the screens, Srikanth cheerfully said, "Now I can't imagine anybody else in the character of Vennela. Keerthy brought life to my vision of Vennela."

Meanwhile, Keerthy Suresh, shed a lot of weight after Mahanati was asked to put on some for the character of Vennela. Apparently, Nani also tried to convince her saying that he liked her when she was a bit chubby like earlier. Nani also opined that Keerthy Suresh had turned into a glamorous magazine cover-page actress of late.

Later, in the interview, Nani also shared that Srikanth wanted to revoke Keerthy Suresh from the movie, after shooting for one week. "Srikanth, who agreed for casting Keerthy Suresh in the film came back to me one week into the film's shooting and asked if we can replace the heroine."

Nani spoke to Filmibeat exclusively during Dasara promotions. Check out the video here:

Nani and Keerthy Suresh earlier worked on a film titled 'Nenu Local,' produced by Dil Raju. Dasara is going to hit the screens all over the world on March 30. Dheekshith Shetty, Samuthirakani, Sai Kumar, and Shamna Kasim played key roles in the movie.