With Krishna and his Leela and the two DJ Tillu films, Siddu Jonnalagadda has proved his mettle both as an actor and writer. His writing, especially, has a carefree attitude and when asked whether he’s inspired from the Hollywood classic The Big Lebowski or the TV series Californication which are known for their idiosyncratic dialogue, Siddu, in an exclusive conversation with idlebrian.com, had this to say: “No, not at all. I’d like to approach anything in a simple way; I don’t like to spin around it. Of course it depends on the scene and screenplay but overall I’d like to approach writing in a casual way.”
To a question on when he figured out Tillu characterization which has a little bit of himself, Siddu said with a smile, “It has formed as I started writing it. It’s like I almost stumbled upon the moment of self truth.”
While he has begun his journey as an actor since 2009, it was with DJ Tillu (2022) that he became an overnight star. When asked how he didn’t lose his focus all this while, Siddu noted, “Obviously in the beginning, there were a lot of things running in mind like whether I will get a break or not. But somewhere later I started asking ‘what should I do to get a break?’ I started understanding the kind of cinema people were consuming. Then you have that perseverance to get that break. So somewhere it helped me to reach where I want to.”
Siddu is known for his diction and uncanny dialogue delivery which has resonated with the masses. On how he picked it up, he stated, “In my house, neutral Telugu is spoken. I was born and brought up in Secunderabad, so there’s Telangana influence from there. I have some cousins from Vizag, so there’s Andhra Telugu influence. Overall my dialect came to me naturally. Also, the way I speak varies from person to person. If I’m speaking with you, neutral Telugu comes out. And if I speak to my team members, Telangana will come out.”
