I Don't Want To Be Restricted To Comedy: Naveen Polishetty

With successful new-age films like Agent Sai Sreenivasa Athreya (2019), Jathi Ratnalu (2021), and now, Miss Shetty Mr Polishetty, Naveen Polishetty has managed to create a brand for himself as an entertainer. But this brand comes with its own risks. On the bright side, people now associate him with humour, and there's definitely a certain level of assurance in the trade that comes along with his name. On the flip side, there's also the risk of this success restricting him to comedy.

Opening up about how he sees the situation, Naveen says, "As long as you find something fresh in the characters you pick, there won’t be any such risks or doubts. I played the role of an intelligent detective in Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya, which required me to hold a very strong emotion apart from just humor. You won’t see that in Jathi Ratnalu in which I played a low-IQ character, and my job in that film was just to entertain throughout. Both these films entertain with comedy, but the difference is in how they express emotions. I don’t want to be an actor who just does comedy films. After Jathi Ratnalu, I chose Miss Shetty Mr Polishetty, which is also an entertaining subject, but it also has a lot of drama and a new idea. It’s all about the newness we try to bring within the entertainment space."

So if he has to accept a script, what should it look like? "I accept the script if I feel entertained throughout and get connected to it. That brings me a level of confidence. I might reject a script if its screenplay is not so engaging. That might entertain others, but at that moment it should bring me confidence and entertain me. For example, recently, I heard an emotionally dark subject following a divorced couple. It has a very good scope for acting and I was pretty sure that I would be appreciated for my performance. But it won’t work at the box office. So, sometimes I reject such subjects," says Naveen.

Then what about experimenting with new genres? Naveen has a response for that too. "I’d love to do an experimental film, but the only condition is that you’ve to show me some films from that zone which became commercially successful. That gives me the confidence to accept such scripts. And I believe that we are here to do films which entertain the audience. At the end of the day, the audience will decide what type of films you have to do. The box office is like a democracy. Buying a ticket is like voting. It’s all about thinking about commercial aspects and bringing the audience to your film," Naveen signs off.