Kannappa, the highly anticipated mythological drama, is set to release in cinemas later this month. Starring Mohanlal, Prabhas, Vishnu Manchu, Akshay Kumar and Kajal Aggarwal, amongst others, the film is directed by Mukesh Kumar Singh. Manchu recently appeared in IMDb’s original series ‘Behind The Scenes’ where he shared insights into what went behind writing the film and what audiences can look forward to.

Manchu said, “Kannappa is a true story which has happened in India. It’s a story about an atheist who becomes Lord Shiva’s greatest devotee. This is a journey of self realization and I kind of resonated with the script when I heard it, and here I am, after 10 years of working on the script, bringing it to the world to see.”

Sharing his inspiration behind making the film, Manchu revealed, “In 2014, there was a scriptwriter who wanted to make this movie, and approached me. For me, when he was narrating it to me, I was already making it larger than life, trying to make it big. Since then, my journey began and I started developing the script and making it large, working on the pre-production, doing the storyboarding and everything.”

On working with director Mukesh Kumar Singh, Manchu said, “Mr Mukesh comes with a lot of experience on filming one of India’s greatest epic, Mahabharat. That was a super success and he was the man behind it. When he came in, he gave a few nuances which were phenomenal. The character arcs which he helped the actors achieve was absolutely brilliant. The credit for the performance of the actors goes to him.” Manchu added, “A major part of the movie was when Kannappa was an atheist. I was stuck with how to approach it. While writing it, I wrote the character. But as an actor, when I was trying to bring it on screen, a day before the shoot, I went and told him, ‘I still haven't figured it out’. He just kept quiet then, and after an hour, he came back and he said, ‘Imagine you're a tiger. A lion, even if it hunts, it lays back, the lioness does the thing. But you never see a tiger let down its guard or yawning or falling down or acting like a lion’.”

Sharing how life has changed for him after making this film, Manchu mentioned, “While making the movie, and after making the movie, and being and dwelling in this movie, I am right now living in a lot of positivity. I believe this is all Lord Shiva’s magic and it’s all his leela, what we believe in.” Manchu further shared, “One of the biggest surprises in this movie is gonna be Mr.Mohanlal's character. People who are well versed with our Indian epics, they're gonna be blown away by Mr. Mohanlal's character and the episode of his”

Mentioning the inspiration while preparing for the film, Manchu said, “I’m a huge fan of The Lord of The Rings and this is my version of it”