23 January 2023
Hyderabad

Every actor has that one film that takes his/her stocks to the next level. Pushpa: The Rise seems to have been that for Sunil, who is now spreading his wings to neighbouring industries. Beginning his journey as a comedian and soon finding himself in almost every film as the main lead’s friend, tickling the funny bones of the viewers with his antics, Sunil later graduated to play main lead roles. While that stint was fairly successful to begin with, it didn’t last long as a spate of his releases bombed one after the other, prompting him to re-evaluate his choices again. And he did that. Beginning 2017, he started accepting supporting roles once again and soon found himself busy–just like in the aughts.

While he did land decent roles in films like Chitralahari, Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava and Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, his turn as the menacing cop Ramaraju in Colour Photo showed the other side of acting prowess. Rediscovering himself with that role, which fetched him accolades from all corners, Sunil next featured in Pushpa: The Rise, where he locked horns with Allu Arjun. Featuring alongside a star of Arjun’s repute and under a director of Sukumar’s caliber and playing a role that was well fleshed out meant that Sunil became one of the talking points of the film when it released.

From his raw look, which he designed himself, to the way he went about bringing Mangalam Srinu alive on screen, Sunil received widespread critical acclaim for the part. No wonder, he is now one of the most sought after actors from Telugu for other industries. He was in the news recently for bagging a role in superstar Rajinikanth-starrer ensemble Jailer. Over the weekend, Vishal tweeted that Sunil is on board for his next, Mark Anthony. These two signings come in the wake of the actor already having boarded Siva Karthikeyan’s Maaveeran and Karthi’s Japan. With Pushpa 2, where he will be reprising his part again, we wonder if the North directors take interest in his exploits. What do you say?