Only a few days are left for the release of Allu Arjun’s Pushpa: The Rule, one of the most anticipated movies of the year. The release of the film is just around the corner and the entire team of the movie including the lead cast is busy promoting it.
Pushpa 2 is the sequel to the 2021 movie that was a record-breaking hit. Not only did it shatter box office records after the COVID-19 pandemic, but it also earned actor Allu Arjun his first National Film Award for Best Actor. The actor also became the first Telugu star to win the National Film Award for Best Actor.
Today (Nov 29), Allu, Rashmika Mandanna and the entire team were in Mumbai to promote the movie. During the media interaction, Arjun reflected on his National Award win and recalled how he expressed his wish to win a national award in front of the director Sukumar.
Crediting Sukumar and the entire Pushpa team for his National Award, he said, as per Indian Express, ”It was my absolute honour. I can tell everybody that before Pushpa 1, I told Sukumar garu that I really want to try for the Best Actor award. I want to take this to the next level and maybe we can try for the National Award.”
Expressing gratitude towards Sukumar, Arjun added, “He (Sukumar) promised me that he would do his best to see that happen. He said, “‘We will make the film where everybody feels that it deserves the National Award for your performance.’ It is most special because in the last 69 years, no Telugu actor has won the National Award. That was in my heart. It is going to be a remarkable achievement in my life. It happened only because of one man, Sukumar Garu.”
Allu Arjun is a known name in Telugu cinema and Pushpa was his first pan-India film. At the presser, the actor shared how he decided to never do a Hindi film.
Arjun, born in Chennai, recalled a conversation with music director Devi Sri Prasad about working in a Hindi film.
“We both come from Chennai. I used to tell him it is very difficult for me to do a Hindi film, but as a music director, it is easy for him to do a Hindi film. I would ask him why he doesn’t do it. He would respond, ‘No, and why don’t you do a Hindi film and along with you, I will also do a Hindi film.’ I said I will never do a Hindi film because at that time it was extremely hard to do a Hindi film,” he said.
Saying that doing a Hindi film was a huge thing for him, he added, “Maybe in our lifetime, we will do one or two Hindi films. It was that far away for us to do Hindi films. From that mindset to coming to this stage and standing here is a very big thing for me. We both won National Awards and gave a national superhit album for the same film. It is the most precious thing ever to happen for us.”