This short film on Bengaluru traffic created quite a stir on YouTube. Called Silk Board: A Traffic Love Story, it was all about how Cupid’s arrow strikes two people stuck in a snarl. They marry and start a family — all in the middle of a gridlock. Actor Rakesh Maiya played the lead role in this Santosh Gopal film. Ever since, there has been no looking back for Rakesh, who has gone on to act in many serials and is today the heartthrob of the small screen with his role in Magalu Janaki (the serial has crossed the 300 episode mark) , directed by TN Seetharam and is aired on Colors Super.
“This is my third serial and I play the lead,” says this MBA graduate, who also reveals that it was not cinema, but journalism that captured his heart first. Though he was working with an IT firm, Rakesh quit his job and took to photo journalism, working for vernacular papers, before realising that even this passion was ‘being sidelined’ by his desire to act on screen.
Rakesh says that he “always wanted to be in the entertainment business, but had no clue how to go about it. So I continued working for a Kannada newspaper for almost two years”.
He then took a six month break “to understand which path I should tread”. As many with no backing in the industry do, Rakesh started giving auditions and he was soon roped in to play a supporting character in the serial Lavalavike for Zee Kannada . He acted in over 300 episodes and next came Niharika on Star Suvarna.
Though he was cast as the ideal hero in most of his serials, he said he enjoyed working for Avalu on Udaya TV. “Though I play the protagonist in this one, my character does have some dark shades like plotting to kill his father. So this role was one different role,” he says.
Ask him about the challenges of working in a serial and Rakesh replies, “Initially, I found it hard to work in serials as the character goes on for years. But, then that also became my bread and butter and a training ground. It gave me a chance to improve my acting skills and personality.”
He has also just completed shooting for a web series, Middle Child Of History , where he plays the lead again. The series is produced by Rakshit Shetty and directed by Rahul PK (now a part of Rishab Shetty’s fim Katha Sangama, which has seven stories directed by seven directors). That is not all — he has once again teamed up with the Silk Board director for an as-yet untitled film.
“We’ve completed shooting; the film is in the dubbing stage right now. There is no lead or villain, but there are five characters around whom the story revolves. I play a man with very conventional thoughts; he does not like modern women. His story is about how he struggles to find a life partner and fit in.”
Rakesh also has another film by Abhijit Ramesh. “This one will be a thriller and is yet untitled. In this one too, I play the lead.”
