INTERVIEW | Adivi Sesh On Dacoit Becoming His Biggest Opener, Not Fearing Dhurandhar 2 Wave, And More

Adivi Sesh has established a unique, unconventional career in Telugu cinema by bypassing the traditional hero route, focusing on content-driven suspense thrillers, and building his own brand as a writer-actor.

Raised in California, he returned to India in 2011 and navigated the film industry without a traditional film family background. Unlike most actors who wait for acting roles, Sesh wrote, directed, and acted in his debut, Karma (2010), a supernatural thriller. He is known for writing his own scripts (Kshanam, Goodachari, Major) and creating roles for himself.

His most recent, 2026 film - Dacoit: A Love Story - which continues this trend, has grossed over Rs 40 crore worldwide in its opening weekend. Released on April 10, the film co-starring Mrunal Thakur and Anurag Kashyap had a strong start and is driven by high earnings in both Hindi and Telugu markets. Dacoit is a more commercial outing than his earlier films, and Sesh, in an exclusive chat with ETV Bharat, says, “This is the highest box office grosser of my career. I am very excited and very happy.”

Earlier, before the film’s release, while addressing the clash with Dhurandhar: The Revenge, when he was posed a question about sticking to the date even as Ranveer Singh-starrer was recreating the box-office magic of its first part, Sesh had expressed confidence in his film.

“During the release of my film Major, it clashed with Akshay Kumar’s Samrat Prithviraj in Hindi and Kamal Haasan’s Tamil blockbuster Vikram. We didn’t budge from our release dates then," Sesh recalls. He further says, "I wasn’t apprehensive about the clash at all. It was just a matter of ensuring that our film got good showcasing and the moment we got that, we became confident. Look, no matter how good my movie is, if I don’t have a screen to show it to you, then there is a problem. But the moment we achieved that we became confident. The creative confidence was always there,” says Sesh. And the biggest compliment, he says, was from this little girl. “She looked at me saying why did you make me cry and that was a beautiful feeling, this is exactly how we describe a movie to the audience,” he smiles.

Sesh achieved mainstream recognition with Kshanam (2016), made on a small budget, and later created bigger successes like Major (2022), which was based on the life of 26/11 martyr Sandeep Unnikrishnan. With Dacoit, Sesh pivots from his intense action thrillers like Goodachari and Major to headline his first full-fledged romantic action drama.

In fact, after 15 years in cinema, the actor has performed his first-ever dance number in the song, Chicchubuddi, to which he says, “It was a matter of trying something new. I did thrillers at a time when everybody was doing love stories in Telugu cinema and now in the midst of this whole narrative of larger-than-life films I like the idea of doing this action-romance. Actually, Dacoit can be called a love story in the rhythm of an action film.”

Sesh has indicated yet another shift in his career approach. While he has been known for writing, co-writing, or heavily involving himself in the scripting of his hit films (like Kshanam, Goodachari, and Major), he has stated that this process takes considerable time and slows down his output and hence he is aiming to move away from his intensive involvement in scriptwriting to focus more on acting after Dacoit and his upcoming G2.

“Yes, I would like to give more attention to acting now. I have written my next film G2, it is already half shot. I do want to give a break to writing after G2 because I have several acting projects lined up and I want to do justice to those,” says Sesh, who has successfully transitioned from antagonist roles (Panjaa, Baahubali: The Beginning) to a leading man bridging critical acclaim with box office success. So, would he be ‘brave’ enough to play a villain again if offered? “I am always ready to play any role or character; the only condition would be that role has to be central in carrying the film (laughs). If the villain is carrying the film on his shoulders, I would be the first one to put my hands up and say, let's do it," he says.

With Dacoit achieving a good opening in the Hindi belt, performing at par with his previous success Major, one wonders if there is an out-and-out Bollywood sojourn happening, and Sesh says, “After Major I was offered every big war film but I didn’t want to do those films because at some level I had made a promise to Sandeep’s (Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, the Army officer who was martyred during the 2008 Mumbai attacks) parents that this film about him meant a lot to me. I didn’t want to come across as I was leveraging Sandeep Sir’s life for other soldier projects. At the same time, I was offered three biopics, but none of those I was excited about. So far, there have been about seven to eight genuine Bollywood offers from proper production houses and proper scripts and directors, but none have worked for me. If something exciting comes up, I will definitely take it up,” he says.

This brings us to the topic of 'blurring' lines between Bollywood and Tollywood industry. There’s often this debate that the distinction between the two is rapidly disappearing, giving rise to a unified "Pan-Indian" cinema, often referred to as the Indian Film Fraternity. This shift, said to be accelerated post-pandemic, is characterised by increased collaborations, audience acceptance across languages, and massive box office success for Southern films in the North. However, Sesh is of the opinion that the cultural differences still remain.

“There will always be some differences which are not commercial but cultural. There is this famous Hindi singer who sang for the Hindi version of Dacoit. After shaking hands and giving me a big hug, he tells me, ‘Sir, I am very happy that I entered the South film industry with this song’. At the end of the day, he sang beautifully ...but these cultural nuances can be the mini barriers that we don’t realise,” says Sesh. “Telugu audiences have always watched Hindi cinema. I saw Premalayam (Sooraj Barjatya's Salman Khan-Madhuri Dixit blockbuster Hum Aapke Hain Koun was dubbed into Telugu as Premalayam) several times, it is nothing but Hum Aapke Hain Koun. The reception that trickled down from Hindi to Telugu has always happened. Now it is trickling down both ways,” he further adds.

Interestingly, Sesh, who grew up watching Aamir Khan's films in the US has frequently identified the senior actor as his childhood idol and a major influence, citing Khan's dedication to storytelling. He expressed immense joy after Khan praised the trailer for Dacoit calling it a "powerful" "high-octane" project. Sesh, a long-time admirer of Khan's work in films like Lagaan and Ghulam, described this validation from his idol as a special moment in his career.

“I have learnt from the career choices Aamir Sir made and that has pushed creative boundaries in my own career. He has been the big foundation of how I have shaped my career. In Telugu, of course, there are quite a few legends I have always loved. From Nag Sir to Mahesh Babu… I have grown up with their cinema. But I always also had a soft corner for Johnny Depp,” he signs off.