There’s a saying that films are a footprint of an actor’s life. While some get erased with time, a select few of them go on to define their legacy. And every actor needs one turning point which makes everyone sit upright and take notice of what they are doing. In Ram Charan’s case, this happened at least thrice over a course of 17 years of his career.

His launch in Telugu cinema with Puri Jagannadh’s Chirutha was preceded by an insurmountable task, considering he is Megastar Chiranjeevi’s son. Will he live up to his father’s name? Will he do something bigger and better? Consider a fighter who’s about to get into the boxing ring and questions like these will play on one’s mind. Here, it wasn’t just the actor but also thousands of fans of Chiranjeevi and countless other movie goers were asking themselves these.

We often use words like ‘star’, ‘performer’, which are part of a spectrum, to describe an actor’s potential and what they bring to the table. Then, there’s another category where the star is also a phenomenal performer, a feat that’s attributed to only a select few actors in the industry. This tag is as good as a promise that the actor makes to the audience that they will surpass the latter’s expectations and fill them with a sense of wonder, joy, excitement, and adulation which will echo in one’s memories for a long time.

Ram Charan’s journey as an actor has had its share of ups and downs, and it largely seems to be oscillating between three levels of his own moniker - ‘Mega’, ‘Power’, ‘Star’. Some films have tapped into his ‘star’ status, others leveraged on his ‘Mega’ side be it in terms of how well he dances or fights like his father, and a select few have gone beyond all these tags. Beyond all the stunts, dances, and everything else that makes a star, Ram Charan’s offscreen persona, in recent years, has earned him plenty of accolades. He has gone on record to say that he has calmed down quite a lot over the years, and everytime he talks on stage, it feels more graceful.

Post Chirutha, his second film, Magadheera, directed by SS Rajamouli, elevated his stardom to a different level. Its blockbuster status aside, Magadheera showcased Ram Charan as an actor with an immense potential, aside his stardom. When SS Rajamouli reunited with Ram Charan once again for the global smash hit ‘RRR’, the director said, “The best part about Ram Charan is that even after all these years, he somehow managed to keep his mind open.” That assessment couldn’t be more true. He’s pretty much been a canvas for directors to paint their vision on, and Ram Charan has only gotten better with time. And there’s no better film to present one’s case of how good an actor Ram Charan is than Sukumar’s Rangasthalam.

There’s an invisible veil between the actor and the audience while watching a film. We tend to watch movies through the prism of our own expectations, and when that veil drops, for whatever reason, magic happens. In Rangasthalam, Ram Charan’s portrayal of his character, Chitti Babu, was so on point that his joy, when he dances on the banks of Godavari, his tears when he grieves for his brother, his anger and vengeance …it all felt like it’s coming from a different place which hadn’t been tapped before. In hindsight, it truly feels like the rebirth of an actor who has realised his true potential, and it makes you look at him from a different perspective.

Then, there’s RRR, where he breathed fire into his character and set the screens ablaze. His introduction sequence in the film where he takes on a mob is one of the most exhilarating action sequences in Telugu cinema, and the shot where his blood-soaked face stares at the challenge ahead of him encapsulates the dilemma that the character, Ram faces - How can I hurt the same people I have vowed to protect and fight for?

In three more years, Ram Charan would have completed two decades of his journey as an actor, and his rise to fame on a global stage, especially with RRR winning the Oscar for Best Song, couldn’t have come at a better time. There’s plenty to look forward to with Shankar’s Gamechanger, Buchi Babu and Sukumar’s upcoming projects with Ram Charan in the lead role. It truly feels like he’s on an adventure, exploring new roles and worlds, and he’s going to take the audience too on a roller coaster ride. And one can only hope and wish that he keeps getting better and better, so that his work will stand the test of time.

- Hemanth C R