With the success of Miss Shetty Mr Polishetty (MSMP), it is safe to assume that Naveen Polishetty is the toast of the town. Garnering appreciation from audience, critics and industry members alike, the actor has proven his mettle as a bankable star with an accessible, endearing charm. Speaking to him weeks after the film’s release, throughout which Naveen has partaken in a blitzkrieg of promotional tours in the Telugu states and the US — the actor admits that he is finally allowing himself sometime to savour the film’s success. “I looked all happy on the outside, but I was a bundle of nerves. We released on the same day as Jawan. There was a lot of apprehension about how the film would fare at the box office and I could not sleep for days leading upto the release.”
Gushing about the film’s growth in the box office, Naveen continues, “In America, the film was a smash hit from the word go. Domestically, we have grown slowly-yetsteadily. Positive word-of-mouth from audience made it a blockbuster.” MSMP is the third consecutive hit for Naveen after Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya (2019) and Jathi Ratnalu (2021), a streak that has unofficially earned him the ‘Hattrick Star’ moniker. Prior to his innings in cinema (which also includes a character role in Nitesh Tiwari’s campus film Chhichhore), the actor earned himself a name on the internet, thanks to his appearances in AIB’s sketch videos like Honest Weddings and Honest Engineering Campus Placements.
MSMP has however helped Naveen transition from being an actor to a star. How does he perceive the reception of MSMP, vis-a-vis the other achievements accrued over the years at different levels? Naveen explains, “I was auditioning a lot in Hyderabad before AIB, but no producer was willing to invest in me back then. The virality of those videos helped producers believe I can be a face of their films. That got me Agent…, post which there was a two-year gap between that film and Jathi Ratnalu, owing to the pandemic. Theatres were not only shut down, but people also believed back then that films will not work in theatres anymore. For me to come with such a massive hit just after the theatres opened, made producers believe that I can fill the theatres. That kind of confidence helps bolster budgets and distribution. Winning the third time round with MSMP was all the more special because I took a huge bet — to work on just one film in the last two-and-a-half years — and it paid off. MSMP is also special because I was working in a new genre (romcom), proving people that I am more than just a funny guy.”
It is no coincidence that Naveen plays a stand-up comic in MSMP. What, however, set him apart, is his contribution to the film behind the camera — particularly the writing table. Naveen says, “I have always been fortunate to have directors who have allowed me to give my inputs and just jam with them for ideas.” While the actor credits his MSMP director Mahesh Babu P for deftly handling the film’s more awkward parts — which involve having its female lead look for a sperm donor — in a way that does not discomfort the family audience; the film’s stand-up portions were Naveen’s brainchild. The actor also reveals that many stand-up sets in the film, which punctuated the film’s romantic and dramatic portions were retellings of the actor’s own experiences, saying, “The parts where I speak about the absurdities of five-star hotel menus or the unpleasantness involved in watching Titanic’s romantic scenes along with your parents were observations I plucked out of my life.” Naveen also goes on to say that taking extra steps like shooting with a live audience, improvising existing material and filming in Hyderabad’s performance spaces like Heart Cup Coffee and Rangbhoomi Spaces played an important role in simulating an authentic stand-up experience in the film.
The actor reveals that a huge part of his efforts in crafting MSMP’s comedy stemmed from his personal desire to see stand-up comedy grow in Telugu. The actor says, “I would love to work more in the stand-up space, I am also open to the idea of collaborating with comics. I really want to see stand-up grow in Telugu, the way it has grown in the English, Hindi and Tamil markets. On a weekend, it will be nice for people to have more options than just the movies for entertainment. People are willing to pay ` 2,000 for a single ticket to watch a Hindi standup special at Shilpakala Vedika. And these shows run to packed houses. This is the kind of future I am envisaging for Telugu stand-up.”
Naveen professes a fondness for all genres of cinema, but he hopes to see himself in a fantasy film someday. “I would love to act in a film like Jagadeeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari (1990).I also find myself gravitating towards films of Rajkumar Hirani and Singeetham Sreenivasa Rao, where entertainment meets heartfelt drama and otherworldly concepts. The actor who has three projects in the pipeline has a lot to look forward to but maintains that he is treading the path ahead with responsibility. In an interaction filled with lightness and comedy, he takes a serious tone while saying, “It is not the success that is hard to handle. It is the responsibility to entertain the audience that is harder to live with which keeps on increasing with every film.”