Actor Manish Chaudhari has done a number of versatile roles and garnered accolades for his acts in films like Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, Netflix's Bombay Begums, Disney+Hotstar's Aarya, Shoorveer, Batla House, Satyameva Jayate, Powder, Zubaan, Bombay Velvet, Mohenjo Daro, Sanam Teri Kasam among others.
Now, he has made his Telugu debut with The Ghost written and directed by Praveen Sattaru starring Nagarjuna, Sonal Chauhan, Gul Panag and Anikha Surendran which released in Telugu on October 5 and in Hindi yesterday. The actor gets candid about his role, the challenges of learning Telugu for the film and his working experience in the South Indian film industry.
"I play the character of Lala, an Underworld Don, the main villain of The Ghost. He is a ruthless gangster with an emotional weakness for his family, all of whom except one have been massacred by The Ghost. This makes him extremely vulnerable. Lala will go to any lengths to protect his family. Lala as a character is extremely vulnerable and has given me a fantastic opportunity to showcase the human, vulnerable side of a criminal," says Chaudhari.
While speaking about his preparations for the role and learning Telugu, Manish says, "Acting in Telugu was a big challenge for me as I don't speak the language. The most important part of prepping for the character was getting comfortable with Telugu, a language I have never spoken before. Praveen Sattaru's AD team helped me tremendously with this challenge. It worked out so well that Praveen insisted I also dub in my own voice, which proved to be an exhilarating experience".
A fan of Nagarjuna since he watched Ram Gopal Verma's Shiva in 1990, it was a fantastic experience for Manish to work with him 30 years later. "He is also such a wonderful person and extremely friendly," he adds.