It is 2022 and it has been a decade since Sudheer Babu has been a male lead. From his first movie to the recent 'Sridevi Soda Center', the actor has essayed a range of roles, besides having a romance with Bollywood in the form of 'Baaghi'.

In his interview, the versatile artist chronicles his journey and how he has made it to this stage.

Excerpts:

I have immense satisfaction that, as an actor, I have gained respect since my first movie. It's more material to me than the number of films that I have done and the number of fans I have got because of my body of work. There was a time when some people mocked me and openly said that I will not make it. The very same set of people are today seeing me in a polar opposite manner.

I concede that I did make some mistakes. There was a time when I was under the impression that the script is the be all and end all of it. With time and experience, I have realized that in addition to the story, budgets and the technical team also matter. That way, my failures have been an eye-opener.

I had to make an investment of Rs 60 lakh on my debut venture. During the making of 'SMS', a technician commented that I can be written off easily. It made me reflect on my will power. I gave my best shot.

As a fan of Jackie Chan, I am fond of action movies. I haven't done them as frequently as I might have wanted to.

It's for respect that I embarked on this acting journey more than 10 years ago. My dad took care of the family business. I never had a definite plan for my career.

I am looking forward to an array of movies. Besides 'Aa Ammayi Gurinchi Meeku Cheppali', I have a film with writer-director Harshavardhan ('Amrutham' fame) in the pipeline. I recently greenlit a project with one of the directors of the web series 'Loser 2'.

'Sammohanam' and 'Prema Katha Chitram' were not conventional genres for me. In Hindi, I okayed ‘Baaghi’ because my character was different.

I have learned from observing Krishna garu and Mahesh Babu. They are family persons. After watching 'Prema Katha Chitram', Mahesh lauded me in the presence of a family member. I haven't approached Mahesh for any career-related favour till now. I am game for sharing screen space with him should a nice story come our way.

A biopic of Pullela Gopichand has been changing hands for years. I played professional badminton before I got into movies. I am all for donning the titular role in his biopic.

Pan-India stories are definitley an option. The Hindi audiences are no strangers to my movies. They have been watching my dubbed movies for years. Prabhas's movies reached out to the Hindi audience much before 'Baahubali' happened. Those dubbed movies from Telugu prepared the ground for the pan-India phenomenon.

I have consciously worked on my voice. People used to be somewhat dissatisfied with my voice in the initial days. Composer RP Patnaik garu's inputs enabled me a lot.

I enjoy working with new filmmakers. I also wish to team up with star directors. But the former are interesting to work with for sure.

My wife is my best critic. I also listen to my friends' feedback. My kids are budding child artists.