'Dark characters have always excited me'

Staying selective

Not all actors are armed with a degree in acting. Despite coming from a family of stars, Telugu actor Sumanth chose to go to an acting school just to perfect the craft. He spent a better part of his youth in an acting school in Chicago but he still thinks there’s a lot more to discover about cinema. 

Sumanth, who is the nephew of Telugu superstar Nagarjuna and grandson of the late Akkineni Nageswara Rao, has no regrets dropping out of engineering to pursue his passion —  cinema. “The course in film-making exposes you to a lot more about the art of films, the history and gives you a practical edge to everything that you learn in theory,” says Sumanth.

After 13 years in the film industry, Sumanth says that there is no rush to grab everything that comes his way. He’s pretty much focussed on doing only characters that satisfy the actor in him. In his latest project, Emo Gurram Egaraavachu which means, ‘Who knows, a horse may fly’, Sumanth has forayed into full-length comedy.

“I’ve done comedy before but this script has room for more comedy, that’s something I haven’t attempted,” he observes. His character is that of a village lad who never clears his high school exams but gets a chance to go to the United States of America. The film captures the  encounters he has in a strange country.

But more than romance or comedy, Sumanth hopes to play a powerful bad guy on screen. “Dark characters have always excited me and like all boys, I have also had my share of favourites among the bad boys, whether in films or cartoons. Anti-hero characters generate curiosity,” says Sumanth.   

Sumanth is very selective when it comes to accepting projects. “I sign on the dotted line only if the combination of role, direction and production is right. I know what it is like to sit at home without work but I still wouldn’t want to take the risk of working in a project just for the heck of it,” he says.

He states that he has faced a line of flops before he could taste success, “I’ve faced my fair share of setbacks but that hasn’t discouraged me from waiting for the right script,” he sums up.