Rishab Shetty opens up on his acting career

Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana

Bell Bottom

Katha Sangama

Ulidavaru Kandante

Rishab Shetty has delivered blockbusters (‘Kirik Party’ and ‘Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Shaale Kasaragodu’) in Kannada as a director. He has backed quality parallel films (‘Pedro’, ‘Shivamma’) under his banner Rishab Shetty Films.

Amid these roles, he continues to explore and enhance his acting abilities for he entered the industry with dreams of becoming an actor. Rishab endured a rough beginning as his roles came in films (‘Nam Areali Ondina’, ‘Tuglak’) that tanked at the box office. “Naturally, my expectations came down and I stopped looking for lead roles. I just wanted to do meaty characters,” he tells DH.

Once he made a mark as a filmmaker, Rishab was able to concentrate again on his acting prospects. One role lead to another and now, he is gearing up for his directorial ‘Kantara’, in which he plays a physically demanding character. He essays a rebellious character Shiva, who is seen participating in the Kambala race apart from being involved in ugly brawls.
Ahead of the film’s release on September 30, the actor-director spoke to DH about preparing for characters in his noted films. Excerpts:

‘Lucia’ (2013): As ‘Lucia’ was being shot, director Pawan Kumar and Rakshit (Shetty) were in talks for another project together. That’s when Pawan said he is looking for someone who can play a constable in ‘Lucia’. I used to sport a short hair and moustache like a cop back then. Rakshit suggested my name. Perhaps, my physical appearance was apt for the character, Kemparaju. So I got picked. Today, when I look back, I am happy that I did the film. My character got a lot of recognition.

‘Ulidavaru Kandante’ (2014): The character Raghu goes through a lot. He is facing too many problems so he is always worried. I had to bring that out. He is on the edge as he needs to escape from the gangsters. Richie (essayed by Rakshit) keeps following him and not to forget, he is planning to take his mother to Dubai. It was early days of my career and I portrayed the character with whatever maturity I had as an actor. Maybe today if I had played the same role, I could might have done something different.

‘Bell Bottom’ (2019): ‘Detective Diwakara’, a wannabe detective, is a full-of-life character like me. So I could easily get into its elements. That said, just because I behave like the character, I can’t remain myself always. I had to understand its graph well. I had to have a grip on what he is thinking in different situations and react accordingly, both through my dialogues and body language.

‘Katha Sangama’ (2019): Director Kiranraj, who later made the blockbuster ‘777 Charlie’, discussed a lot about this role with me. He gave me references of several roadside people. A beggar usually gets portrayed in a clichéd manner in films. We had to avoid that. I would always casually try the squint-eyed look. So we decided go with that kind of appearance for my film. Throughout the shoot, I had to maintain the squint-eyed look and be conscious of which eye was looking in a different direction. Again, it was a character that doesn’t utter a word so it was a challenge to showcase what he was going through.

‘Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana’ (2021): My character of Hari had to be measured against Raj B Shetty’s character of Shiva. I had to underplay it. He is a manipulative person who grows on to be greedy about wealth. At one point, he grows so powerful that he cares not to explain anything to anyone. Raj had explained how he wanted to go beyond the stereotypical representation of a gangster, who is always loud with exaggerated looks. We aimed to make Hari a cold-blooded criminal. I was sure Shiva’s character would get the maximum appreciation but I did Hari for my learning. I knew once the film drops in the OTT space, my role would be talked about as well.