Nikhil: Like the Ugadi Pachchadi, Kirrak Party too has all the flavours of life

When actor

Nikhil

came to The

Times of India

office on Saturday morning, he looked up-beat and all excited. With

Kirrak Party

hitting bull’s eye at the BO, the actor has been flooded with rave reviews and congratulatory messages since Friday morning.
“I have got the biggest openings of my career. I couldn’t have asked for a better Ugadi gift. The movie is going houseful across theatres in AP and Telangana and collections are massive. We’re already in the safe zone,” says Nikhil, laughing as he settles down for a chat with Hyderabad Times.
This is the first time a film of his has released during Ugadi and Nikhil feels the timing of the release couldn’t have been better. “For the past three weeks not many films released due to the theatre strike, so everyone was waiting for entertainment real bad. Kirrak Party came as welcome festive offering,” says the actor, who’s won a lot of accolades for his performance in the film.
His transformation from a happy-go-lucky engineering college fresher to a brooding, heartbroken senior with a violent streak has been the talking point of the film. “A lot of people had great things to say about my dual avatar. In the first half, my character, Krishna is all bubbly and innocent, but in the second half, he turns into a raging young man filled with anger,” says Nikhil, adding, “I worked really hard to show the variation in my body language, you see. I gained some 10-15 kilos to look the part in the second half and it feels great to know that my performance is being been appreciated. This has been my best performance as an actor.”
Likening Kirrak Party to the

Ugadi pachchadi

, the actor says, the film will make for a perfect Ugadi watch . “This film is a perfect mix of all elements — love, emotion, sentiment, comedy, happiness, friendship, a father and daughter bonding and heartbreak. So, it has all the emotions that you experience in life, just like the Ugadi pachchadi, in perfect proportions. A lot of people told me they had tears in their eyes when they stepped out of the theatre,” he explains.
However, Nikhil confesses that he isn’t a big fan of the pachchadi himself. “For me, Ugadi has always been been about watching movies, getting new clothes and stationary and having pachchadi. But it has never been a favourite dish of mine, I only search for bananas in it,” he says laughing and adds, “The most important part of Ugadi is cleaning the house and I had to clean my room always. I still do (laughs). Then we would decorate the home with flowers, do puja and play cricket in the evening.” Having begun the New Year scoring his seventh hit in a row, the actor is hoping to continue the success streak. “More than the success, it’s the progression I’ve made as an actor that is more gratifying. People spend money on your film, come and watch it, so as long as they are happy, you are happy. I wish all my fans go and watch Kirrak Party,” he says signing off by wishing everyone a Happy Ugadi.