Sumanth Shailendra Babu shed 14 kilogrammes in order to resemble a student.

Sumanth Shailendra Babu returns with a bang in Govinda Govinda, which is set to hit theatres this week. From playing a student to sporting a clean shaven look to speaking in Vijayapura’s North Karnataka dialect, the film represents a number of firsts for him.
“We’re ecstatic to be releasing the film this week.” This is my first Kannada release since Bhale Jodi five years ago. Brand Babu and Miss India were two Telugu films I worked on. I’m delighted to be returning with a Kannada-language film. This was supposed to be out in April, but the lockdown thwarted those intentions. “We were approached about releasing the film directly on OTT, but we opted to wait for a theatrical release,” Sumanth explains.
“This film is set against the local north Karnataka setting,” Sumanth says, revealing a little more about the project. Bhavana and Kavitha Gowda, the two leading ladies, share an equal amount of screen time. One of them is kidnapped, which is an important aspect of the plot. I had invited Sharan to join us in this film as well, but he was already booked for other projects. We also have Roopesh Shetty in the movie.”

“This was the first time I worked with Bhavana,” Sumanth adds when asked about working with his two starring ladies. We both work out at the same gym, but we’d never met before. However, we hit it off on set and got along swimmingly. We get to see Kavitha laugh more than she talks off screen because she is a quiet person.”

“It was tough on two counts,” Sumanth says of his role. I take on the role of a student in grades 11 and 12. The film starts in Vijayapura before moving to Bengaluru. It was difficult for me to get the Vijayapura dialect correct because I had never spoken in it before. Furthermore, the film focuses on the lives, mindsets, and personalities of children in that age range who believe they are mature and know everything. Not only did I have to get rid of my facial hair, but I also had to reduce 14 pounds to fit into the persona. Ram, a Hyderabad-based stylist, assisted me in perfecting my student style.”
When you ask Sumanth about the time between his last Kannada release and this, he says, “I wanted to explore different cinema industries, and by shooting films in Telugu, I was exploring a new market while also extending mine.” At the moment, it appears that everyone is doing this with Pan Indian films. I’m also considering doing more multilingual films now.”