The Bahubali actor kickstarts a Hindi-Tamil-Telugu submarine film in November, based on a true story.

It's time for Rana Duggubatti to move out of his Bahubali avatar, King Bhallala Deva, and get back to a more recent period drama. He plays an Indian naval officer in Ghazi. The film is a true story revolving around the Pakistani Navy's flagship submarine, Ghazi, which sank near the eastern coast of India during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, en route to the Bay of Bengal under mysterious circumstances. The actor will start shooting for the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu trilingual in November.

`It's a gripping screenplay and fascinating for someone who growing up has been a fan of films like Crimson Tide and rued the fact that our submarine officers haven't been portrayed much in films,` says the actor, who has already started working on his look and is interacting with officers as part of his prep. `I've met a friend's father who was in the navy for years and I'm trying to set up more appointments early next month.`

Since the original Ghazi sank, they will be building two submarine sets in Hyderabad which, he promises, will be extremely detailed. The film is being helmed by debutante director Sankalp. `He's the original writer on the film and had a perfect vision to tell this story,` says Rana explaining the choice of the filmmaker.

And why a trilingual? `Well, it's an Indian story and the whole country needs to see it at once,` he smiles.