With the 'cute' tag

Sandalwood has been his cradle. He was born even as his father was emerging as Kannada cinema’s successful anti-hero, while his mother had just given up a fledgling career for domestic bliss.

Son of Devaraj and Chandralekha, Prajwal might have been glittering in Kannada film industry for only three years now, but Sandalwood is in his blood as he grew up in a family that was always in the limelight.

Prajwal has been unlike his dad in one way. While Devaraj was the archetypal tough man, his son is known for his quintessential cute boy roles. Prajwal is keen on growing out of the romantic hero image he has acquired. But he knows that there is a pace at which he can go. “There is a commercial aspect to everyone’s life but I would like to first give the audience what they want and then I will offer them my creative ideas and talent in the form of my own films, which I hope to make some day,” Prajwal told Metrolife.   

In the just released Kencha, Prajwal plays a college-going guy who gets sucked into a whirlwind of violence. In his upcoming movie Superman, he plays a love-struck guy. “It is fiction polished to look realistic,’’ he says.

Prajwal says when he first saw himself on screen, he was thrilled and would marvel at himself but as time passed by, he has become more critical of his acting skills and “today acting has become a serious engagement. If people love and respect me I must live up to their expectation,” says Prajwal.

Becoming critical, Prajwal believes, has helped him. He says his films may have not set the box office ablaze, but neither were they duds. Thanks to the fairly good response they have elicited, he has a steady stream of offers coming his way. “I always wanted to do humourous roles. Portraying human emotions is the toughest thing and I have always wanted to do some role like that,” he says.

Prajwal watches a lot of Hollywood movies. While he believes that some of them could be remade into Kannada, he says they must be tweaked to suit the local flavour. “That calls for original talent,” says Prajwal and adds he’s not interested in a copy and paste job but one that will offer good scope for experimentation.

To stay fit, Prajwal sticks to a regular gym and weights routine and swears by his fruit, steamed vegetable and ragi mudde diet. He says that if he slips a little in his diet he tends to put on weight. He confesses his weakness is his younger brother whom he dots on a great deal. “He keeps me on my track and he’s more a friend to me and perhaps the only one who knows all my secrets,” he says.

Prajwal hasn’t been spared of gossip and pairing up. He says that although it did depress him initially it wasn’t too long before his parents reasoned him out of it.

What about his lady love? “I would never want to marry a girl from within the industry. I would always prefer someone who is as simple as I am and settles into the family well.

Some one who bonds with my parents,” says Prajwal.