'My father will always be my hero'

Love for dads outlives Father’s Day. Telugu actor Vishnu Manchu, himself a father of twins, says that his father veteran Telugu actor Mohan Babu will always be his inspiration.

“I hope that I can be at least ten per cent of what my father has been to me, to my children. My father will always be my hero,” says Vishnu, not forgetting to add in the same tone, “The two things that I’ve imbibed from my father are honesty and compassion.”

Vishnu confesses that when he’s not shooting, he’s with his family and whenever he travels he makes it a point to take his wife and kids along. “I don’t want to miss their growing up years.

It’s wonderful to hear them cackling in their own language,” he says.
And there’s no compromise when it comes to work either. Vishnu is working on Doosukeltha in Telugu which is a comedy. He is more than looking forward to his multi-starrer production, which has Raveena Tandon in one of the lead roles.

   Talking about Raveena, Vishnu states, “I must say that Raveena is still looking hot and she has defied the logic of aging. More than anything she’s a wonderful person, very easy-going with no attitude whatsoever.”  

Vishnu’s father Mohan Babu is best known for all the villanous roles he has played and continues to. There’s perhaps no other actor in his time who has done better than Mohan Babu. And now when Vishnu is offered dark characters, he confesses that his biggest challenge is to do better than his father. “Nobody has come close to doing better than my father, when playing a negative shade. They say soft-hearted people make the best on-screen villains,” notes Vishnu.

There’s a lot of research that goes into all of Vishnu’s characters.“I turn an anthropologist of sorts and study every character. I also interact with the director to get an insight into the character. All my background work is reflected on screen,” he shares.

Vishnu is popular with the old and the young alike. He gets a lot of female attention too, so how does he handle that? “Well, I am enjoying all the attention and I consider myself lucky to get all that attention, although it can get a little scary at times,” he says.

 Vishnu has high regards for Kannada actor Ambarish, who also happens to be a close chum of Mohan Babu. The two veteran actors never miss a chance to call on each other whenever they are hop into each other’s city.