When 23-year-old Amit Bhargav visits temples in Karnataka (including places such as Dharmasthala), it is common for a crowd to gather around him; some tell him their woes and ask him for help, and a few even seek his blessings. He is not a godman; Amit played the role of Rama in the Kannada serial The Ramayana -based Seethe , on Udaya TV. “I wouldn’t know what to do other than grin sheepishly and walk away,” says the young actor who studied Law before getting into acting full-time.
New role
In what seems like a logical progression, Amit is now all set to play Krishna in Mahabharatham , directed by Suresh Krissna. “I am a huge fan of his movies, especially Sathya , Baasha and Annamalai , and so, when Cinevistaas, which produced the Ramayana series, offered me the role in this series, I took it immediately.”
It is his love for Tamil cinema that brought this Bangalore-bred artiste to Chennai. “I grew up watching Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam’s films, and learnt Tamil that way. I moved to Chennai recently to pursue acting in Tamil movies,” he says. Active in the city’s theatre circuit, he was last seen in The Madras Players’ Water that was based on Komal Swaminathan’s Thanneer Thanneer . “P.C. Ramakrishna (of Madras Players) thought I looked too urban to fit in the milieu that the play was set in. I insisted that I would make up for that with my acting and finally, he did give me a part.”
Back home in Bangalore too, Amit was involved in theatre. “I was part of a music troupe, and someone I know suggested my name for a part in a ‘company naadagam ’ (old-fashioned Kannada musicals) titled Sadarame . It was a very famous play resurrected by theatre personality B. Jayasree. I enjoyed working on it,” he says.
( Mahabharatham will air on Sundays at 10 a.m. from February 17 on Sun TV)
