There was a time when I walked barefoot: Sadhu Kokila

The ace music composer talks about why he decided to venture into acting and the many ups and downs he has faced in his journey

I have completed 25 years in the Kannada film industry. There’s really no role that I haven’t explored but I am most popular as a comedian. My journey hasn’t been an easy one, but it is worth recounting.

I grew up in the Binnypet area of old Bangalore. My father, a clerk at the Binny Mill, was a trained violinist; music would always be playing in our house. He would play during the church service every day and was also a part of the music band of the Karnataka State Police Department. My mother and sister are both playback singers. My two brothers and I have also been trained in some form of music.

I chose to learn how to play the keyboard. My first lessons were with a music teacher called James, and later I picked up the basics of Western music from S J Joseph, who was also the guru for stalwarts like Ilayaraja. As a keyboardist, I played and performed with prominent composers and music directors like M Ranga Rao and L Vaidyanathan. It was my dream to be the fastest keyboardist in Karnataka. I can’t claim to be the fastest one, but I think I have managed to achieve my goal to some extent. Apart from playing the keyboard, my other interest was football. I always managed to strike a balance between my keyboard and football lessons.

I completed my schooling from St Joseph’s Indian School. I was an under-13 football player but I didn’t make it to the state team because of my height.

Acting happened much later

I sang and performed for more than a decade before I ventured into the Kannada film industry with ‘Sorry’ and later ‘Shhh.’ These two films did moderately well. Then I played the
lead role in another film and composed music for a couple of other movies before I decided to produce a film called ‘No 1’. But with that project, I incurred a heavy loss and was saddled with huge debt. We sold everything we had. We sold our house and I remember that I
didn’t even have slippers. I walked around barefoot. These were tough times.

During this time, I decided to quit music composition for a while and venture into acting in a big way. I believed that this would help me earn enough to make both ends meet. It took me more than a decade to financially settle down. Nowadays, my children, who I feel haven’t faced any difficulties, have inherited my keen ear for music. My oldest son Suraag is a music director and my younger one Srujan is a pianist and trained classical singer. I always wanted to learn Hindustani music but never got down to doing it, so I got my younger son to study it. I have a full-fledged music studio in Bengaluru which is managed by my children.

My journey as a comedian

It is a tough job to make people laugh. You have to be in good humour and stay positive at all times. Comedy, as I have learnt, has three forms. The first one is to make people laugh through exaggerated body language, the next is to have minimal dialogues and more action and the third one is to have punchy dialogues that will leave an impact. The last one is what I embrace in my work. I have consciously developed a style of my own over the years.
It takes a lot of hard work to keep a good mood and stay happy. I can never work when I am not in the right frame of mind. I must feel happy and content from within to give my best to my work.

I have closely followed the work of Johnny Lever and Charlie Chaplin, as well as Senthil in the Tamil film industry. They all have a unique style. Johnny and I have worked in a Kannada film together. We have been close friends since. He never leaves Bengaluru without calling on me.

I feel the Kannada industry has come a long way after I began my career. But we aren’t growing as much as we should be. We should have more people watching Kannada movies now, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. We have more remakes in Kannada compared to other languages. We should focus on generating original content because only that will stand us in good stead.

Youngsters who aspire to be actors and be part of this glamorous industry must understand that acting is no cakewalk. It calls for a lot of hard work, commitment and dedication. I wouldn’t advise them to depend on only acting for a living. It is better to have a main career option and take up acting as a hobby.

The author is an actor and music director

(As told to Nina C George)