'Content, and not language, defines pan-Indian cinema'

Naga Chaitanya is on a high, both on the personal and professional fronts.

- Reya Mehrotra is a freelancer

Having recently tied the knot with actress Shobita Dhulipala in an elaborate Telugu arrangement, the 38-year-old actor is now looking forward to NC 24 and Thandel—two of his new projects for 2025 that also mark his foray into genres and stories he's never experimented with before. In an interview with Reya Mehrotra, Chay—as he is also fondly known as—talks about his upcoming film projects, love for romantic films, Bollywood plans, his association with this year's Chivas Luxe Collective as the 'Alchemist of Emotion', and more. Edited excerpts:

Your upcoming films are already creating a lot of buzz. Tell us more about them.

Thandel will be released on February 7 next year. I'm almost done shooting for it. The film is a true story about some fishermen from a village called Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh, how they get caught in Pakistani waters and are put in jail. It tells the journey of this process and their subsequent release.