Raj B Shetty: I am a reluctant actor, but took up role in 777 Charlie because I am an animal lover

The team of the upcoming pan-India film, 777 Charlie has begun its promotional tour starting with a trip to god’s own country. At the press briefing of the film in Kochi, director-actor Raj B Shetty, who plays a veterinarian in the film, spoke about how he came to be a part of 777 Charlie.

"I am a reluctant actor; I think like a director and act rarely. Back when I had directed my debut, Ondu Motteya Kathe, Kiranraj reached out to me and we connected, during which time, he narrated the story of 777 Charlie to me. It was an initial draft, but it was well-written. He wanted some help with correcting the dialogues and that is how I got involved in the process. At that point, I had no idea that he also wanted me to play a character in the film. I was just happily involved in the corrections of the draft. When Kiranraj eventually told me that he wanted me to act too, I wasn’t keen, because direction gives me more joy than acting. But then he managed to convince me because I am quite the animal lover in real life. I have about 8-9 Indie dogs back home in Mangaluru. Kiran thought that I would do absolute justice to the role of a veterinary doctor,” explains Raj.

Kiran’s characterization, though, was vastly different from how Raj prefers to be seen onscreen. “When I direct, the focus is on subtle acting. Kiran wanted me to play a character who is a lot louder. That is when I got worried if I could pull it off. But he was confident I could. Moreover, lead actor Rakshit Shetty is a dear friend and I could see why the team was keen to have me onboard. Most importantly, though, I really love this project as a whole, because I have a good actor companion other than Rakshit (the canine playing Charlie in the film). This was a joy and I really want great things to happen to this team. As a director, I would never invest 160-odd days in shooting a film, and that too with a dog. It is too much of an effort. I have seen Rakshit having to give several takes for some scenes; not because he was acting badly, but because the dog was not in the mood. This is a film made with a lot of passion and I really want audiences to watch it in theatres,” added Raj.

777 Charlie, produced by Rakshit Shetty and late GS Gupta for Paramvah Studios, is slated to release across the country in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi on June 10. The film, which has music by Nobin Paul, also stars Sangeetha Sringeri, Gopalkrishna Deshpande and Bobby Simha, among others, in pivotal roles.