That fame comes easy to anyone from a filmy background is a myth, says Sumanth Shailendra. He says that an actor’s career depends on his choice of films.
The actor’s father Shailendra Babu is a powerful producer in the Kannada industry, but Sumanth is determined to walk his own path. The five-films-old-actor is back with Lee, which will be out in the theatres this week.
In a conversation with City Express, Sumanth springs a surprise by saying, “After Lee, I will be taking a long break from commercial cinema”.
He explains: “I have long been associated with Gandhinagar because we have an office there. Having met so many producers, distributors and directors, I intially took their advice in choosing my films and I did my first two films Aata and Dilwala. I followed them up with a few more mass films. At one point, I sat to think about where I was headed and whether I want to be another mass hero or whether I want to be recognised for content-driven films.
After much thought, I have decided to work on the latter. Today, the Kannada film market has been creating a huge buzz with content-driven stories such as Lucia, Rama Rama Re, Thithi and the recent Kirik Party... I want to follow that path, which looks greener.”
Sumanth says that he chose Lee for the character he got to play.
“The hero faces a lot of challenges... I play a mentally ill person, a beggar, a lover boy and an action hero. Each role required that I change my body language, and each took three months.”
Lee, says Sumanth, is on the Kannada letter Lee “not Bruce Lee or Jet Lee”.
The film produced by Sarathy Satish also features Nabha Natesh and Sneha.