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‘I give my best to each film and never look back’

December 14, 2014 10:15 pm | Updated October 13, 2016 05:02 pm IST - HYDERABAD:

Telugu film actor Venkatesh - Photo: Suresh Krishnamoorthy

He is probably one of the few actors who has a diverse bouquet of movies. While he doesn’t actually hold up a megaphone and reveal his age, he feels age is just a number.

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This actor, cricket buff and much-spiritual star was resting before his birthday (December 13, 1960) and opens up in this exclusive interaction with Suresh Krishnamoorthy.

It has been a long way for you, from Loyola College, Chennai, and then to the US where you did your MBA. How did your tryst with tinseltown start ?

Yes, it certainly has been a remarkable journey. Films have been very satisfying.

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But I really can not say if films were very planned.

It had to happen, I guess, as an angry young man in 1986 with ‘Kaliyuga Pandavalu’ but then it was trending in those days.

You have done 69 films so far. What are your favourites and is there something that you would like to do, as the ultimate in your career?

Every film of mine is my favourite. I gave my best to each one of them and never looked back. ‘Hit’ and ‘flops’ really are ‘karma’.

A team of a few dozens of cast and crew led by a director do not necessarily make a ‘flop’. They just happen. No regrets.

You are known for a diverse range of roles, from a young man, a lover-boy, an action star, to ‘Swami Vivekananda’. Were all of these intended, planned?

I told you nothing is planned. They happen. And yes donning the robes of Swami Vivekananda was an experience.

You have done Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu with Mahesh Babu and are now into your second multi-starrer, Gopala, Gopala , this time with Pawan Kalyan. Will you do more?

Sure, if I get the right script. I have no ego hassles with anyone.

People know you as a star and a cricket buff but not many know your spiritual side. Why is it so?

My spirituality and quest for more is certainly very, very personal. It has to be like that. Before we know who we are, we must understand who we are not, as Ramana Maharshi and Nissgar Dutta Maharaj said.

Regardless of age, one has to live in a frame of mind that is beyond the human, beyond the five senses of physical being that we leave back here on earth.’

This actor, cricket buff and much-spiritual star was resting before his birthday (December 13, 1960) and opens up in this exclusive interaction with Suresh Krishnamoorthy.

It has been a long way for you, from Loyola College, Chennai, and then to the US where you did your MBA. How did your tryst with tinseltown start ?

Yes, it certainly has been a remarkable journey. Films have been very satisfying.

But I really can not say if films were very planned.

It had to happen, I guess, as an angry young man in 1986 with ‘Kaliyuga Pandavalu’ but then it was trending in those days.

You have done 69 films so far. What are your favourites and is there something that you would like to do, as the ultimate in your career?

Every film of mine is my favourite. I gave my best to each one of them and never looked back. ‘Hit’ and ‘flops’ really are ‘karma’.

A team of a few dozens of cast and crew led by a director do not necessarily make a ‘flop’. They just happen. No regrets.

You are known for a diverse range of roles, from a young man, a lover-boy, an action star, to ‘Swami Vivekananda’. Were all of these intended, planned?

I told you nothing is planned. They happen. And yes donning the robes of Swami Vivekananda was an experience.

You have done Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu with Mahesh Babu and are now into your second multi-starrer, Gopala, Gopala, this time with Pawan Kalyan. Will you do more?

Sure, if I get the right script. I have no ego hassles with anyone.

People know you as a star and a cricket buff but not many know your spiritual side. Why is it so?

My spirituality and quest for more is certainly very, very personal. It has to be like that. Before we know who we are, we must understand who we are not, as Ramana Maharshi and Nissgar Dutta Maharaj said.

Regardless of age, one has to live in a frame of mind that is beyond the human, beyond the five senses of physical being that we leave back here on earth.’

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