'Heroes are eager to kick me'

The hottest new villain in the Tollywood circuit now, model-turned-actor Dev Gill has struck gold with his bad boy act as ‘Ranadev Billa’ in Magadheera. Pitted against Ram Charan Tej in the blockbuster film, the import from Mumbai is not just earning rave reviews for his power-packed performance but is also flooded with movie offers.

Having already signed four films, Dev Gill is in a happy place right now. “Magadheera has changed my life completely. All the big heroes want to bash me up on screen now,” says Dev who tried his luck with Bollywood earlier. “I am getting offers from all over the country and even Suriya and Vijay from the Tamil film industry have approached me with film offers, Heroes are eager to kick me” he laughs.

The actor had earlier appeared alongside Dev Anand in Mr Prime Minister and was also seen in Bhagat Singh. He made his Tollywood debut with the dud Krishnarjuna, after which he decided to take over his dad’s restaurant business in Pune. That’s when he got a call asking him to audition for Magadheera.

“Although I’m getting Bollywood offers, I’m not too keen on them. I love the way Tollywood works. The industry is producing wonderful films, that even Bollywood wants to remake. I owe my success to Tollywood and want to dedicate my life to it,” he adds. Working with Charan Tej was good fun, reveals Dev. “He is friendly, sensitive and grounded. We hit it off quite well,” says Dev who is now busy learning Telugu from his tutors, and his wife is a “Telugu ammayi”.

“My wife insists on talking to me in Telugu, so that I can learn faster,” he adds. The onscreen baddie has been getting several offers to play the lead, but is hesitant to take them up. “There is fierce competition among actors these days and I don’t want to take up the role of a hero. I’d rather play negative roles convincingly,” he quips. And if everything goes well, Dev might make Hyderabad his home. “If I continue to get good work here, I may move to Hyderabad soon.”