Exclusive! I’ve been lucky to work with teams that prioritize talent over marketability: Dheekshith Shetty

The Kannada actor, who is making rapid inroads in Telugu cinema, is part of Nani’s next, Dasara

Dheekshith Shetty

Dheekshith Shetty is in Hyderabad when we call him about his next Kannada project, Blink, which he announced recently. Turns out, the actor is shooting for his first pan-India project, Dasara, which revolves around three major characters, played by Nani, Keerthy Suresh and Dheekshith. After his breakthrough role in Dia, Dheekshith’s trajectory in Telugu cinema has taken off quite well. “I am four films old in Tollywood now. After Dia, Blink is the first Kannada project that I signed, all my other projects happened before or around the same time as Dia, after I had left my TV show, Naagini. Tollywood has been a lot more welcoming, in a sense. What is also happening is that since the pandemic, everything’s slowed down in Sandalwood. The film’s that you see lining up for releases now are backlogs from 2018/2019 and early 2020. Since the pandemic, very few new projects have started. A lot of the shoots happening now are projects that had begun in pre-Covid times. In fact, even after two releases in Telugu and completing Meet Cute, I was literally jobless for about five months from October last year. Of course, I kept myself busy with plays and theatre-related activities. Then, thankfully Dasara happened. Meet Cute was directed by Nani sir’s sister, and some of the assistant directors (ADs) on that film are now also working on Dasara. The role I am doing now was meant for Malayalam actor Roshan Mathew, but he had scheduling issues and could not accommodate it, which is when the ADs suggested me instead, based solely on my work in Meet Cute. Dasara will go on till about June-July,” he says.

His next in Kannada, Blink, is a film that Dheekshith is immensely excited about. “This is a sci-fi subject, which I am doing with my gang from my days in theatre. Director Srinidhi Bengaluru has been a good pal for many years and has come up with an interesting subject, which we believe is novel for Kannada audiences. We really hope this film will make a mark. We have about 15-days-worth of work left on it. The film also stars Chaitra J Achar, Mandara, Gopalkrishna Deshpande and while we are shooting it as a Kannada movie, we may dub it into other languages as well,” says the actor.

While Dheekshith is thrilled to be a part of a big production like Dasara, the only issue is the commitment towards it. “They require you to be free and available any time you are required on set. When they are juggling the schedules on multi-starrers, you cannot take up any other project. For instance, this film has Nani sir, Keerthy Suresh, Saikumar sir, Samuthirakani, and I have combination scenes with all of them,” he says.

Considering that pan-India multi-starrers are time consuming in production, isn’t it problematic being able to do only that project until it’s done? “Working on a film over 2-3 years is not an issue, being able to sustain yourself through that time is. I am an actor who is dependent on my income from my acting career. You can afford to spend a few years doing only one film if you are paid well enough through that time. If you prioritize quality over quantity in the quest to make good films, you can work this out, but it has to be worth your while. I am trying to figure my way around all this because I have to ensure a steady stream of income,” he says.

The actor is conscious that he can’t only look for job satisfaction and needs jeb (pocket) satisfaction too. “The thing is that there are a lot of subjects that are not worth the effort but will bring in money. I am not ready to do those. Also, the problem is that when you have a hit on hand, you get a few offers thereafter, but if one of those fails, it will be difficult to recover from that. I am struggling to come to terms with all of this and figure out my path in the industry. Yet, at the same time, there have been projects were narrated to me and even the remuneration was discussed, but then went to other heroes based on my perceived marketability. Thankfully, in Telugu cinema, the roles that I have got have been solely based on the teams’ belief that that I can do those characters and not how bankable an actor I am. Here, the calculation is, if I put ‘x’ amount of money, what will my returns be from theatrical, satellite, digital and dubbing rights?” says the actor, who is now looking forward to the release of Meet Cute. “It will be a straight-to-OTT release. It should come out in a month or two. The team is currently in negotiations with platforms,” he says, adding, “KTM, which has been in the making for a while, is finally done and is in post-production now and will be released as a Kannada-Telugu bilingual. I have another eight days of shoot left for Sheegrameva Kalyana Praptirastu. I am in talks for a few subjects, which should take off after Dasara, maybe in August.”

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