It is not everyday that you get an offer to act in a movie, let alone a Hollywood project.
But fate had its own plans for Bangalore’s 23-year-old Vibish Sivakumar when he got a chance to act in a major Hollywood project, The Life of Pi, directed by Oscar winning director Ang Lee.
Vibish plays the protagonist, Pi’s (Suraj Patel) younger brother, Ravi Patel in the movie.
Interestingly, Vibish has no prior acting experience, formal education or a godfather in the industry which helped him bag the role.
He passed out of RV College of Engineering last year.
He tells us as to what led him to this once in a lifetime opportunity.
“While in my third year of engineering, I and my friend found a flyer pasted at the back of our college bus which read ‘Casting for a Hollywood Project’.
My friend’s sister, who is a talent agent, dared me to go and audition for the role.
I took up the challenge and went for the auditions which was happening in the city,” he says.
The slew of auditions happened over a course of six months and Vibish had initially auditioned for the protagonist’s role.
But the makers got back to him after a couple of months and he was told that he had bagged the role of Ravi Patel.
“I had to fly twice to Mumbai to meet Ang Lee and it was only when I had a chat with him that I realised the magnitude of this project,” he says.
Vibish, who plays a brief but significant role of an adult Ravi says most part of the movie was shot in Taiwan and it was a truly humbling experience for him to work with an international cast and crew.
On Ang Lee, Vibish tells, “He is extremely down to earth and humble.
He is a man of few words and keeps mostly to himself.
He is out of this world!” And wasn’t Vibish nervous on facing the camera for the first time? He says nonchalantly, “No.
The entire experience was so surreal and I was feeling numb throughout.
I am just a simple guy from Bangalore and you don’t really expect these things to happen to you.
People wait their entire lives to be a part of a project like this.
I was just concentrating on giving my best.
Moreover, Ang Lee is not the kind to tell you before a scene, ‘Don’t mess up’.
He makes you feel instantly at ease and before you know, you have delivered your scene.
” Vibish says that he has received positive feedback and the director actually told him that he is a good actor.
He plans to pursue acting and also did a brief course at the New York Film Academy.
He signs off, “I am open to doing a Bollywood or even a Kannada movie.
I would love to play Christoph Waltz’s role in Inglourious Basterds some day.”