Prem doesn’t run away from the ‘Lovely Star’ tag that Nenapirali gave him over twenty-five years ago. If anything, he wears it with gratitude. “That tag exists because people gave it to me out of sheer love. You don't wipe that away," he says.
And yet, early success can feel like a trap. “In our industry, if you score a hit as a lover boy, twenty identical scripts turn up at your doorstep the next morning. When you're still finding your feet, you take what comes; you don’t have the luxury to choose. Even my fans would ask, ‘Sir, your looks suit other things; why play only the lover boy?’ Spark gave me that space. Audiences were excited, and my son even joked after a recent event where people chanted ‘Rakara-kara-rakshasa!’ instead of ‘Lovely Star’.”
With D Mahantesh Handral’s Spark, produced by Dr Garima and Avinash Vashistha, Prem finally found a way out of that box. In the film, set for release on September 25, he steps up as a ruthless antagonist opposite Niranjan Sudhindra, cigar in hand, trading gentle smiles for a cold, hardened gaze. For a strict non-smoker, the makeover came with a real physical cost.
“I hate smoking,” Prem says bluntly, and adds, "I spent an entire month nursing a severe throat infection after the shoot. You can act through your eyes and body language, but a prop roots the internal frustration of a character. When people smoke, they often vent anger they can’t take out on their families; they exhale it away. That cigar was this man's rage.
Though I must add, that’s strictly for the cinema hall; don't pick it up in life.”
Taking on an antagonist role opposite a young actor could easily have made a senior star to hesitate, but Prem shut that down early. Along with Niranjan, Spark also features Rachana Inder as the female lead, alongside Bhavana returning to Kannada cinema in a key role as a lawyer, and Dharmanna Kadur, among others in the cast.
“The moment you walk on set, ego has to die,” he insists. “The minute I think, ‘I have twenty-five years behind me, he’s just starting, why should I play second fiddle?’, the scene is dead. I conditioned myself: Niranjan is the hero, I am the bad guy. A hero carries a hundred barricades; he must be noble, avoid vices, please everyone. A villain has no such cage. He lives entirely on his own terms, and as an actor, that freedom is great.”
A large part of his confidence came from Mahantesh’s script discipline. “I kept probing him about the styling, the tone, the limits. If I ever suggested an improvisation that bent the character, he’d tell me, ‘Sir, don't think so far outside the box that we lose the track.’ That clarity assured me I wasn’t just brought in to prop up the hero.”
Looking back at a career marked by steep climbs and patient waits, Prem doesn’t buy the complaint that good roles are drying up for senior actors. “Success means something only when you’ve crawled up from the ground through struggle and learned how to survive,” he says. “Good roles aren't vanishing. You just have to wake up to reality, stop leaning on old laurels, and be willing to experiment," he concludes.