‘Acting skills aren’t technical’

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‘Acting skills aren’t technical’

Thursday, 13 December 2018 | Chahak Mittal

‘Acting skills aren’t technical’

Kannada actor Yash tells Chahak Mittal how diving into the mindset of the audience helps him select his roles and films

There may be a difference in dal aur roti and sambhar aur dosa, but North and South India is united in its choice of films. People love everything — Bollywood, Tollywood and Kollywood. The popularity of South Indian cinema has peaked in north, with films like Baahubali and Kaala breaking all box office records.

 Actor Yash, who will soon be seen in Prashanth Neel’s KGF: Chapter 1, believes that South Indian cinema has a lot to offer and with its growing popularity, it is gaining worldwide acclaims.

The film, set in the 1980s in the Kolar Gold Fields of Mysore, showcases him as Rocky, who is “highly ambitious, loves his wife while his mother is his greatest inspiration. He is someone who isn’t bothered about the world.” The film focusses on slavery and oppression of the downtrodden sections of the society who worked at the gold fields.

Yash explains that even though he could relate to the character who is ambitious and stylish, strong and lovable, there were a number of challenges that he faced. “The biggest challenge while playing any character is to understand it deeply. I related to some of Rocky’s elements, emotions, and style, that was not it. Portraying his laidback attitude towards the world, which I had to express through my body language, was a challenging task. It had to be subtle yet strong. There were minimal but very impactful dialogues.”

The film’s trailer, that was released in November, presents high definition visuals, that would remind one of Rajamouli’s Baahubali, which was the most expensive film in South Indian cinema. KGF is also projected to be one of the largest Kannada productions. So will it be as big as Baahubali?

Yash says, “It’s great that the trailer was received so well by the viewers. But since the themes and background vary, both the films cannot be compared.” KGF will be released pan India in five languages including Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu on December 21.

The actor is known for his roles in numerous Kannada films like Googly, Lucky, Gajakesari, Modalasala, Thamassu, Jaanu.

So how does he select his roles? Yash explains that understanding the audience’s mindset is the most important thing while choosing a particular role. “I don’t just pick up a certain character to play. I first try to become one among the audience, re-read the scripts over and over, understand what they will think about the character and the film, and then choose any particular role. The audience’s point of view is really important because eventually they are the ones who judge a film and determine its popularity. Humans and their emotions are universal. So when you understand the audience’s perspective, you understand the film too.”

The actor who always “wanted to be a hero,” holds a similar approach when it comes to being an actor as well. He says, “It’s a filmy story. I always wanted to be an actor since childhood. But I realised that understanding life is the key to becoming an actor. Acting skills aren’t technical. You just need maturity to contain them.” He laughingly tells how his parents were against sending him to an acting school.

The actor believes that the Indian industry has evolved to a higher discourse from the ‘boy meets girl or girl meets boy’ film era. “There is a very high level of exposure today. Its source is more international content that is now coming in. The films are based on a more realistic content these days, either on a famous personality or any historical event. KGF is a fictitious film but is based on the realms of the Kolar gold fields which were a great heritage of India.”

He believes that with the advent of digital space, “variety of films and genres have expanded.”

 

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