I Use A Food Guide To Explore A City

After spending a month cavorting with wild elephants in Thailand for his next film, Rana Daggubati talks travel, food and fashion.

- Mona Ramavat

AS HE WALKS INTO THE PRESIDENTIAL suite at the ITC Kakatiya, Hyderabad, Rana Daggubati is set for work from the word go, un-touched like a yogi by the minor stir of star struck folks in his wake. Tall, dark and sporting a wildish beard, the Baahubali star carries himself with casual ease. The best thing about his physical appearance, he says, is his height (6 ft 4 inches), “You do not have to really vie to get attention.” Soon after, though, Daggubati delivers a surprise. “I only work on my physique to suit the character I am playing, else I do not step into the gym,” he says, shattering the popular impression that he might be something of a fitness freak.

He is 25-30 kilos lighter since Baahubali. “Haathi Mere Saathi that I am currently working on needed a leaner look.” The trilingual (Telugu-Tamil-Hindi) film revolves around a man and his friendship with jungle elephants. A chunk of the shoot just concluded in a dense Thai jungle and the next is planned in Kerala. “Spending those many weeks in the midst of nature was a great experience. Cut off from everything, you become another person,” says Daggubati who has always liked the wild and was a serious trekker before he started working. “Not too many professions give you so many opportunities for travel, do they?”

The Perfect Vacation