As Adarsh Gourav is all set to make his Telugu debut, the actor credits Samantha Ruth Prabhu for being the key force behind his entry into the Telugu industry. Adarsh, who is currently shooting for his yet-to-be-titled Telugu film, revealed that he had always wanted to work in the industry but didn’t know how to break in.“Telugu is my mother tongue, so it had been long due for me. But I didn’t know how to start because I couldn’t find an inroad,” Adarsh shared to Hindustan Times. The turning point came when he attended an after-party for Citadel, where he spoke to Samantha about his interest in Telugu cinema. The actress took the initiative to introduce him to the right people. “She told me to take meetings, and her business partner and manager helped me meet a lot of people, including the producer and director of my debut film. That’s how I landed the role, it was a stroke of luck,” he added.Adarsh described the film as a unique “multi-genre” project, blending psychological thriller, horror, and dark comedy. While Telugu cinema is often associated with grand, larger-than-life storytelling, Adarsh admitted that he gravitates toward more realistic narratives. “I started watching films seriously much later in life, and I connected more with filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Dibakar Banerjee, and Zoya Akhtar. Their characters felt real and relatable to me,” he explained.
Despite being new to the industry, the actor feels a deep-rooted connection due to the language. “Growing up, my parents had a rule that we would only speak Telugu at home. At that time, I didn’t understand the significance, but today, it makes perfect sense,” he said. While his journey in Telugu cinema has just begun, Adarsh already feels at home.
He concluded by saying that even though he never had Telugu friends growing up, being here feels familiar, to which he says, “Maybe it’s the people or the food, but there’s something magical about working in your own language.”