Sundeep Kishan: ‘Michael’ has changed me as an actor and a person

Actor Sundeep Kishan opens up about his new film ‘Michael’, a gangster drama that will release in multiple languages, and how it took shape after a self-evaluation that followed a low phase in his career

Actor Sundeep Kishan considers his new movie Michael, directed by Ranjit Jeyakodi, to be his most special film yet. The gangster drama starring Sundeep, Vijay Sethupathi, Gautham Menon, Divyansha Kaushik, Anasuya Bharadwaj and Varalaxmi Sarathkumar will release in theatres on February 3 in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam. “The visual narrative, not just the story, will appeal to a wide audience,” Sundeep says with confidence during a conversation at his residence in Hyderabad.

Michael has been his labour of love for nearly three years. The idea for this film came from Sundeep and his team and they approached Ranjit Jeyakodi, who had directed the Tamil films Puriyaatha Puthir, Ispade Rajavum Idhaya Raniyum and Yaarukkum Anjael. Sundeep calls Ranjit’s writing and directorial style “raw and original”. 

Sundeep reminisces, “On a particularly bad day I asked myself if this is the end of my career, what films would I be leaving behind for the audience to remember me. There weren’t many.” He began analysing what worked for him and what did not. There were significant films such as Prasthanam, Gundello Godari, Venkatadri Express, D For Dopidi and Routine Love Story in Telugu, Maanagaram in Tamil, and Shor in the City in Hindi and a few more that he was proud of. 

When some projects that he had banked on did not shape up as expected, he decided to restart his career with a new approach. Michael is the first step in that direction, he says. “Ranjit worked on the idea given to him and came up with a ‘genius’ script. If I have to describe his ingenuity, I would say his narrative style has shades of director Selvaraghavan’s brilliance. Working on Michael has changed me as an actor and as a person.”

Having seen the first cut of the film recently, Sundeep believes that Michael will introduce the audience to Ranjit’s remarkable vision. “I am a fan,” he adds. The actor also believes that this reinvention will change how people perceive him as an actor. Will the film usher in Sundeep Kishan 2.0? “I hope so,” he responds.

Through the different lockdowns, Sundeep worked out to sport a lean, agile look. He shed 10 kilograms to fit into the look that Ranjit wanted for his character. A reference point was Nagarjuna Akkineni’s lean, sharp look in Ram Gopal Varma’s Shiva. Sundeep was keen to break away from his loverboy image, which he feels can be limited after a point: “In cinema, people try to box you into a category and later you begin to question what you are capable of. I wanted to reinvent myself.”

The lean look that Sundeep sported in the 2021 film A1 Express was a step towards Michael in terms of getting fit. “I normally do not enjoy working out. I had to do it for Michael. For one portion of the film, I lived on egg whites and black coffee for about 18 days, after which my right leg took a beating. It is not healthy and I would not recommend this method to anyone. I was in a wacko mood to push myself.”