There is this story, from the early 1990s, that Dinesh Prabhakar enjoys telling. Of how, inspired by films, he dropped out of his undergraduate course and took off to Bombay looking for the ‘underworld’. Becoming an actor was part of the plan. “I asked quite a few people where exactly the ‘underworld’ was, where this place was located. I wanted to be in the underworld,” he deadpans.
Actor, ad film maker, casting director, dubbing artist - many tags describe Dinesh but his preferred tag is actor. “All the rest are, or were, means to become an actor,” he says, even as he indulges a fan’s request for a selfie.
Dinesh appears in the Saif Ali Khan-starrer Chef , as the food truck’s Malayali driver, Alex Oommen. This is not his first Hindi film either, he acted in the Naseeruddin Shah-Kalki Koechlin starrer, Waiting and Shoojit Sircar’s Madras Cafe .
Of Chef , he says, he had gone for auditions with another actor for another role in the film. They were on the lookout for a Malayali actor, who could speak Hindi, for the driver’s role. Dinesh fit the bill, his stint in Mumbai having helped with his Hindi, and he was in.
“I thoroughly enjoyed Chef , the entire process - the road trip, and the food too. The team was so professional, unlike what we have hear about Bollywood. From director to everybody on crew, it was great working with the Bandra West Pictures team!” Solo is his other release this week, he is also casting director (part) for one segment of the film. He is a fixture, in many films and has essayed some memorable roles such as Lukka Chuppi , Left Right Left , 1983 , Jacobinte Swargarajyam to name some.
“I end up doing the kind of roles that my friends ask, ‘did you really need to do that?’ My answer is that there was a time I really wanted to act more than anything else. I have struggled for a break, that is what acting means to me. Plus I value personal relationships more and often end up accepting offers that even I might not be excited about.”
Dinesh belongs to a generation that ‘struggled’ for a break in films, it was long before reality television and social media. “You got your photos clicked at the local photo studio, wrote your phone number behind it, and went from location to location handing these out. It was a struggle in every sense of the word.” He realised very early, almost immediately on return from Mumbai in the early 2000s, that to get a shot at acting he needed a ‘godfather’, “which I didn’t have!” His experience in advertising came in handy, resulting in him setting up a firm, Front Row Films, with friends.
In the meanwhile his life was about making rounds of film locations. “There were none of today’s technology...there was no way of knowing things. I took three buses to go to Ottapalam to meet Lal Jose, only to find out on reaching that he was shooting in Kochi and I made the journey back. It was a struggle,” says the Perumbavoor native. Finally he made it to Meesamadhavan and became actor. He took a break after Rasikan and returned with Cocktail.
While in Mumbai, he worked many jobs to get by, eventually reaching the advertising business, becoming assistant director and at some point even started voice-overs for Malayalam versions of commercials (for the likes of Shahrukh Khan). In Malayalam films he has dubbed for actors such as Naren, Nishanth, Makarand Deshpande ( Amen , Two Countries and Pulimurugan ), Prabhu Deva ( Devi ) among others.
“But everything I did was a means to the film industry.”
With Thira he turned casting director, “Vineeth wanted new faces and we needed actors from places such as Belgaum, Mysuru and Tamil Nadu. We had a casting call, and auditioned actors. I believe that film set a trend of casting calls and giving newcomers a chance. Usually it would be either decided earlier or based on recommendations. The trend now is to issue casting calls via social media.” He did the casting for Jacobinte Swargarajyam and in part for Lukka Chuppi too.
It is more than 15 years since Meesa Madhavan, and Dinesh makes his debut as lead in Bash Mohammed’s Prakashan , the story of a tribal man who migrates to the city in search of a job and his subsequent experiences. “For now it is being shown in the festival circuit, the theatrical release might be some time later.”
He has evaded being typecast, each of his roles is different. Confessing to deliberately keeping the roles mixed, he says this is his way of steering clear of over exposure with the same kind of roles as some character actors are prone to. “Because I want to act for as long as I can.”
