Nabha plays such a wild character

After Kalki 2898 AD, we had not seen any Telugu movies hit the theatres lately. But after what seems like a long enough gap, we have Darling, gearing up for a July 19 release.

Darling stars Priyadarshi Pulikonda and Nabha Natesh in the lead roles. The film revolves around a simple man whose life is turned upside down when he gets married to a woman with split personality disorder. After Aparichitudu, we now have another mainstream film where a character suffers from this specific psychiatric ailment.

When asked about what attracted these actors to their respective roles, Nabha and Priyadarshi surprisingly quoted the other person’s character as a key reason. “Nabha plays such a wild character and I am constantly on the other side, reacting to it. The prospect of reacting continuously to a character like that drew me to this film.”

Nabha talks about the interdependence between men and women, saying, “Behind every woman who achieves so much, there is a man out there to support her. Be it her father, brother or partner. I loved the dynamic shared by Priyadarshi and my character in the film. This made Darling stand out for me.”

Having acted in a range of comedies, Priyadarshi is careful to emphasize that as an actor he wishes to bring out humour not comedy. When asked to specify the difference between humour and comedy, Priyadarshi says, “A joke, sketch or scene designed to make you go ‘haha’ is comedy. Whereas a set of situations that make you deeply observe about your relationship with them is humour. Humour involves reading between the lines. Balagam, for instance, was a movie about death. But there are some situations that make you laugh. That is humour at work.”

Priyadarshi goes on to emphasize that Darling is more than a comedy, saying that it will offer its fair share of commentary on the state of young men and the pressure they face to get married.

Nabha Natesh will be featuring next in the historical action entertainer Swayambhu, where she will be playing the role of a Bharathanatyam dancer. The actress, who started out in Kannada cinema, wishes to one day do more work in her mother tongue Kannada, alongside films in Tamil and Hindi. “I happen to speak all these languages. I’m just waiting for a good role now,” quips Nabha.