Nagarjuna Akkineni opens up on how playing an NIA officer in ‘Wild Dog’ proved to be an eye-opener

May 2021 will mark 35 years since Nagarjuna Akkineni debuted as hero in the Telugu film Vikram. It was as though the virus told me, ‘I can stop the world, you are no big deal’.” Written and directed by Ahishor Solomon, Wild Dog was in the making long before the team announced the film with its first poster in December 2020. When he came to me with a well-researched story for Wild Dog, I was confident that he would direct it well.” Wild Dog is in a similar genre to the Hindi film Uri: The Surgical Strike, which Nagarjuna says is among his favourite films in recent years: “It’s hard to tell what is fiction and what is real; I liked how they wove in the family drama.” How much of Wild Dog is fictional? Though he has acted as a cop in several films, Nagarjuna says Wild Dog was an eye-opener: “I realised I had been holding the gun wrong all along,” he says with a laugh, “These weapons are sophisticated and the slightest pressure is enough to trigger them. “I cannot sit at home; I love to work.” Going digital Wild Dog was to release directly on Netflix, but the deal was re-negotiated once theatres reopened and Telugu films began faring well at the box office: “It works in favour of Netflix as well, since a film that releases first in theatres generates a buzz.” Nagarjuna believes OTT is the future of entertainment and says, “A project has to be an event/spectacle film or solidly engaging to draw people to the theatres.” He is in talks for a web series and likes the idea of a story being narrated over several episodes: “There’s scope to experiment.