Ram Charan was apprehensive about rivalry with Jr NTR during RRR

The lead actors of SS Rajamouli’s RRR, Ram Charan and Jr NTR have known each other for several years. The filmmaker definitely pulled off a casting coup with Jr NTR and Ram Charan to play Bheem and Ram, respectively. The actors have been promoting the film in the U.S. and also spoke about how the writer-director had united the Indian film industry with RRR. In the latest interview, Ram Charan was asked about his equation with Jr NTR and how they come from rival acting families, and the actor had an interesting reply to the question.

Actor Jr NTR is a third-generation actor coming from the family where his father Nandamuri Harikrishna and grandfather NT Rama Rao are veterans in the industry. Meanwhile, Ram Charan is the son of actor Chiranjeevi and his uncle is actor Pawan Kalyan. His cousins include Allu Arjun, Varun Tej, Sai Dharam Tej, Niharika Konidela, Allu Sirish and Panja Vaisshnav Tej who have also joined the film industry.

Speaking in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ram gave an insight about working with his co-star Jr NTR and about any competition between the two stars and their rival families. He was asked whether director Rajamouli wanted a sense of real-life rivalry to inform the on-screen rivalry in the film. To this, Ram said, “Now that I’m thinking about it, yeah. Probably. Why not? I don’t think there’s any reason not to think that, but Mr. Rajamouli also wanted to share our very real bond off-screen during the scenes where we’re not rivals. I always had some apprehension that there would be competition about who’s going to do better and everything, but the professional rivalry never came into the picture between us. We were so comfortable, and our well-written stories and characters made us feel comfortable in our own spaces. So it wasn’t about one-upping each other; it was about the story and Mr. Rajamouli’s vision. And if not for Rajamouli, I don’t think we would’ve been as comfortable doing this film. He really knows how to balance every aspect, not only from a filmmaking perspective, but also the expectations of fans. So, the so-called rivalry was never an issue.”

Besides Ram and Jr NTR, RRR also features actors from the Hindi industry like Ajay Devgn and Alia Bhatt, along with artistes who have worked in south industries like Shriya Saran and Samuthirakani. British actors Ray Stevenson, Alison Doody and Olivia Morris are also part of the cast. RRR became the first Indian film to be nominated in the Best Original Song category for ‘Naatu Naatu’ at the Oscars. RRR also won the Golden Globe award for Best Original Song for Naatu Naatu. At the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, it won two awards for Best Song and Best Foreign Language Film.