Allu Arjun on Winning India’s Best Actor Award, Next-Level ‘Pushpa 2’ and Hollywood Plans (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Naman Ramachandran Indian cinema A-lister Allu Arjun is delighting in his best actor win at India’s National Film Awards for “Pushpa: The Rise – Part 1.” Directed by Sukumar and produced by Mythri Movie Makers and Muttamsetty Media, the film traces the rise of Molleti Pushpa Raj (Arjun), a labourer who rises through the ranks of a sandalwood smuggling syndicate and faces off against an egotistic police officer.

The Telugu-language film was also dubbed into other Indian languages and went on to become the biggest box office hit of 2021 in the country.

It is the first time an actor from the Telugu-language film industry has won the best actor accolade at the National Film Awards in India. “Getting the national award is the highest official respect you can get,” Arjun told Variety. “What we realized was that in 69 years of Telugu cinema, while other technicians and directors have won, no actor had won best actor at the national awards.

So that was a pathbreaking achievement and became the pride of the Telugu people. I was glad that I could contribute to it in a small way.” Arjun attributes the film’s success to its rootedness. “It’s the common man factor, it’s the characterizations’ attitude that really connected across all languages,” Arjun said. “We wanted to make very authentic, rustic, rooted storytelling.