JOIN USA hero from childhood
When his classmates were aspiring to become engineers or doctors, he was dreaming of making it big on silver screen some day. Now, his dream has come true, with his fourth film being released, with him playing the hero.
Yash was basking in the success of ‘Modalaa Sala’ which recently hit screens, when City Herald roped him in for a freewheeling interview. How can I forget the city? said Yash when this reporter asked him if he could recall his tryst with Mysore, his native?‘You can write tomes’, says Yash, now 24, before going to flashback. When he was a kid he was fond of renting bicycle from a shop in Paduvarahalli on Hunsur road, the locality he grew up in.
All he had to pay was Re one rent per hour for the bicycle. “I used to pedal happily, but the thought that I had to return the bicycle after one hour used to trouble me.
As and when the time drew near, the shop owner, who until then was keeping an eye on me, used to come out only waiting to receive the bicycle. I was buying time, promising him to return, but, still I was continuing to pedal around the shop.
“I have played all the games a kid plays in his or her nascent days. Marbles, top and many”, says Yash, waving at one of his friends greeting him in a truly Mysore accent of Kannada. A proud alumni of Mahajana Education Society (MES), Yash says he studied from LKG to second PUC at Mahajana’s.
He has won many prizes in the competitions he had participated in school and college, then. He had finished his Second PUC, when his tryst with art coaxed him to make a career.
But, it wasn’t that easy. Yash’s parents were not okay with his plans to discontinue education to embrace art for life. Eventually, Yash won, but still his parents were not in sync with his decision. He left for Bangalore without a penny in his hand. However, he somehow managed to join Benaka, a theatre group founded by doyen B V Karanth.
“Till Benaka happened, theatre meant mythological dramas, I had grown up watching in my locality”, said Yash. He was always an alternate actor, a second actor who steps in, in the absence of main actor, and was wellversed with entry, dialogue and exit in the plays, such was his involvement.
Meanwhile, he also did his BA at KLE College in Bangalore with psychology and journalism among optionals. “A chapter on general intelligence in psychology, is still helping me get into the skin of characters I essay”, said Yash. It was then TV serials happened and luckily most of them were aired in prime slots-Nandagokula, Malebillu, Preethi Illada Mele among others.
Producer E Krishnappa who had hit a ton with the runaway success of ‘Mungaru Male’ had seen him on small screen, and offered him a role in ‘Moggina Manasu’.
The movie went on to become a big hit. For Yash, success didn’t stop here. His second release ‘Rocky’ gave him much scope for dancing skills, followed by ‘Kallara Santhe’ that was a take on real life. ‘Gokula’ was a multi-starrer where he shared space with another actor Vijay Raghavendra.