Nagarjuna has a tough task ahead. It's nothing but essaying the role of Baba Hathiram. Although he has portrayed much more challenging roles like Annamayya and Shirdi Sai, about whom there is a certain image, playing Baba Hathiram could be tougher not despite the fact that Hathiram is by far an unknown entity but because of it.
There is no much documentation about the 18th century devotee of Lord Venkateswara, thus Nag honestly admits that "getting into the character will be a bigger challenge."
Speaking to a national daily, the Oopiri actor says that deciding upon the look of the character itself will take much deliberation as there is no known evidence of how the Baba looked. The look of the Baba will be arrived at by the end of this week.
Apparently, the legend of the Baba offers a greater scope for the director and the writer to come up with intriguing scenes than did the legend of Shirdi Sai or Sri Ramadasu. The legend has it that Lord Venkateswara used to play dice with Hathiram every night. It will be interesting to see as to what kind of discussions will be portrayed. The conversations he had with Lord Venkateswara have been retold across generations.