As 2024 draws to a close, Rana Daggubati has taken up the mantle to bridge the chasm between Telugu superstars and the audience, promising unscripted conversations and a glimpse of who these icons are behind the camera.
Koffee with Karan may be its obvious reference point, but The Rana Daggubati Show is nothing like it. It has no interest in making shocking headlines or manipulating guests into revealing salacious details. It doesn’t feel like a relentless onslaught of brand endorsements. It’s not flashy, bitchy, or gossipy. In fact, the maiden episode featuring ‘Natural Star’ Nani, his Saripodhaa Sanivaaram co-star Priyanka Mohan, and HanuMan star Teja Sajja is enveloped in the kind of warmth and camaraderie most likely inconceivable to Karan Johar and his pretentious guests.
The Rana Daggubati Show is a fine example of what celeb chat shows, when done right, can achieve. The first episode is a shining testament to the fact that not all conversations with celebrities need to be extractivist to be engaging; that creating a safe space for guests is not only possible, it’s mandatory. That one can address important issues and still score big on entertainment value.
Wrapped in good-natured banter, Daggubati and his guests discuss it all, from their recent IIFA controversy to Daggubati’s dynamic business interests, Nani’s family-man image, Mohan’s experience of working with actor-politician Pawan Kalyan in the upcoming, highly-anticipated OG, and Sajja’s journey from being a celebrated child-actor to a leading man.
Daggubati and Nani also deliberate on the importance of nurturing friendships within the film fraternity, the inexplicable nature of ego, the illustrious family background of Nani’s wife Anjana Yelavarthy and how the health of Nani’s 101-year-old grandfather improved remarkably after he moved him closer to nature in his Chevella farmhouse, about 40 kilometres from Hyderabad.
(Image: Amazon Prime Video)
The 34-minute episode, titled Normal is Boring, also features three games cheekily named Meaningless Meaning, English Tinglish, and What the Story. Although it’s too little time to unpack the life stories of three actors of various stature and leaves you wanting more, the episode’s design makes it amply clear that Daggubati has no such intentions. The camera, to no one’s surprise, largely focuses on Nani and Daggubati, occasionally accommodating the younger actors.
But it’s funny how, in a pilot that starts with Daggubati clarifying the spelling and pronunciation of his last name, the disclaimer right at the beginning gets it wrong. Apart from this minor grievance, the first episode feels like three close friends (Daggubati, Nani, and Sajja) talking, reminiscing about the good old days as they hurtle head first into the future.
An organic effortlessness permeates throughout. So much so that despite Daggubati announcing at the outset that he’s meeting Mohan for the first time, there is never an awkward moment between them, only genuine curiosity to know her better. In fact, such is Daggubati’s ease that halfway through the episode, you realise he’s sitting on the floor, talking, playing games, laughing and no one bats an eyelid as if it’s the most natural thing to do.
Normal is Boring brims with such precious subtleties, but its pièce de résistance is ‘The First Supper’—the huge work-in-progress cutout of legendary South-Indian actors (including NTR, Krishna, Kamal Hassan, Sridevi, Venkatesh) sitting at a table over food and drinks. It could have been just a prop in the background, but the fondness with which Nani and Daggubati talk about it before starting the show, as if paying homage, and the way they keep returning to it throughout the episode, shows their deep reverence towards what they do and the people before them who paved the way. It is this mindfulness and attention to detail that makes The Rana Daggubati Show a cut above the rest.
Created and executive-produced by Daggubati, the Prime Video original series has been shot in Hyderabad at his own Ramanaidu Studios. With a new episode every Saturday, the eight-part series will invite some of the biggest actors and filmmakers of Telugu cinema such as Naga Chaitanya Akkineni, Sreeleela, Siddhu Jonnalagadda, SS Rajamouli, Dulquer Salmaan, Ram Gopal Varma, and Rishab Shetty in the coming weeks.
