An MBA. Then an assistant director with a hotshot director. A misfire in Tamil followed by a hit or two in Telugu as the lead. And then a lead role in a critically acclaimed ensemble Hindi film to launch his career. No, not Siddharth. We're talking about Sundeep Kishan who seems to have taken a similar route to stardom.
Chennai boy Sundeep is all of 24 years old. Just three years ago, he was another college kid doing his MBA, running around giving auditions before Gautham Menon took him in as an assistant director for Vaaranam Aayiram . “I was his worst AD. He was so patient with me,” chuckles Sundeep, who has just signed a two-film contract with Vikram Bhatt after his role of an aspiring cricketer in Shor In The City got him his big break in the Hindi film industry.
“I was born in Chennai and did my MBA at Loyola College. Though I always wanted to do films, I feel acquiring a degree is very important,” he begins his story. After hanging around for a year with Gautham Menon, he signed a Tamil film called 20-20 . “It was for Satyajothi Films. We shot for five days and the movie got postponed indefinitely. Guessing it's shelved by now. But that was a busy period in my life where I was doing four movies in three languages.”
Critical acclaim
His auditions fetched him lead roles in Telugu films Sneha Geetham and Prasthanam , both of which went on to be hits and got him critical acclaim. The directors of Shor In The City , Krishna DK and Raj Nidimoru, noticed him in the political thriller, Prasthanam . “They asked me how good is my Hindi and asked me to audition. All my roles have been through auditions. I was chosen out of 6000 boys for Sneha Geetham . It was a star hunt. Even the 7Up campaign was through auditions.”
“I couldn't have asked for a better break in Hindi. The entire team believed in the film, we bonded really well. We didn't have rehearsals, but Girija and I met once or twice because the chemistry had to be right. More than being part of the cast, I am a big fan of the directors. I am totally in love with the movie,” says Sundeep, now getting in shape for his next project in Hindi.
Though he has now shifted base to Mumbai, he hopes to come back if he gets the right role. “I've grown up watching Tamil films but I hope to get to work with a good director soon. I can read and write Tamil. I am in no hurry to sign films. I have my Swift and I manage to make enough to survive. I can afford to be choosy and pick the right roles,” he says.
