Jim Sarbh learnt Telugu for Kuberaa: “I didn’t want to say a line without knowing what every word meant”

At the recently held Kuberaa song launch event in Mumbai, actor Jim Sarbh opened up about one of the biggest challenges he faced while working on the film — learning Telugu from scratch. Known for his powerful performances and attention to detail, Jim shared how he took the time to not just memorise his lines, but truly understand every single word.

Jim shared “Well, the challenge, of course, was learning the lines because I don’t speak Telugu. That took a lot of time and effort, and I don’t like the idea of saying a sentence without knowing what each individual word means.”

He explained how the structure and flow of the Telugu language is very different from English, which made the process even more interesting and demanding.

“In English, you might say, ‘How many are there?’ but in Telugu, it could be like, ‘Many are there, how?’ or something similar. So, where do you put the ‘how’? At the end of the sentence, at the top of the sentence? That took some time and effort to get right.”

Produced by Suniel Narang and Puskur Ram Mohan Rao under the banners of Sri Venkateswara Cinemas LLP and Amigos Creations Pvt Ltd, Kuberaa is co-produced by Vipul Agarwal and Manish Vasisth. Mugafi presents the film in North India and also leads its distribution across the region.

Directed by National Award-winning filmmaker Sekhar Kammula, Kuberaa stars Nagarjuna Akkineni, Dhanush, Rashmika Mandanna, Jim Sarbh, and Dalip Tahil. With music by Devi Sri Prasad (DSP), the film will release in five languages — Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, and Malayalam.

Kuberaa is set to release in theatres worldwide on June 20, 2025.