The short film industry in India has been receiving the much-deserved appreciation at global and national award platforms for experimenting with the format, narrative and discovering many hidden acting talent.
City boy Ankith Koyya’s recognition at this year’s Siima (South Indian International Movie Awards) came as a big boost for the 22-year-old, who won the best supporting actor for the short film Yedhane Vadili Vellipomake at the recently held awards ceremony in Hyderabad.
“I was very happy to see my nomination among four others in the category. The award has come as a big surprise for me and has boosted my confidence in a big way,” said the budding actor.
A student of B.Tech in Gitam University, Ankith had cherished a passion for film-making and acting from his childhood.
Hailing from a conservative middle class family, he never fully went behind pursuing a film career and followed the conventional engineering route after his Intermediate.
It was, however, at Gitam’s dramatics club Faces — a part of its arts association Kalakriti — that Ankith finally got a platform to express his acting skills through a series of street and stage plays.
The club gave him an opportunity to participate in the IIT Kharagpur’s cultural festival, where his performance in Antony’s monologue in Julius Caesar was greatly appreciated by the judges. “One of the judges offered me a course in his institute in Bangalore. That experience at IIT Kharagpur made me realise that I had to get out-of-campus plays and learn a lot more as an actor,” said Ankith.
The turning point in his life came with a Facebook message from casting director Praveena Subbalakshmi Malisetty which finally landed him an OLX ad with Allu Arjun in Mumbai. Soon after that, he was approached for a role by Director Srikanth Sri in his 42-minute short film Yedhane Vadili Vellipomake .
Buoyed by the recent appreciation for his acting skills, Ankith wants to explore more opportunities in the film industry.
He has already bagged a role in a full-length feature film titled Ala by debutant director Sarat Palanki.
“I am really excited about the character. The film is about four friends and their life journey and I play one of the supporting characters.” The film is being shot in Visakhapatnam and is slated for a September release.
While juggling between his B.Tech classes and film shoot schedule hasn’t been easy, Ankith says his family’s support has been very important all along.
“When I first got the OLX ad offer, I was very scared to tell my father about it as it was bang in the middle of my semester exams. But when he heard it, my father told me to just take up the opportunity and go. My parent’s belief in my talent has been my biggest support,” he said.
After completing B.Tech, Ankith wants to pursue a professional course in film-making and martial arts. “I want to live most of my life with the make-up on, in front of the camera and between the sounds ‘Action’ and ‘Cut’,” summed up the young actor.
