Actor JD Chakravarthy needs no introduction to Telugu audiences. He made his debut with Shiva and went on to star in several successful films. Over the years, he has played lead roles, villains, and character roles, and has also directed a few films. After a few years, he returns to films, especially Telugu cinema, with Gayapadda Simham.
He begins by clarifying that he didn’t stop doing films on purpose and that he was always ready to play a challenging character. “It’s not that I stopped acting. As an actor, if I get a challenging character, I get very excited. Director Kasyap narrated a story that impressed me, and I agreed to do it. You’ll see one side in the first half, and it changes completely in the second half.” Elaborating on the script and his role, he says the script has it all, and he didn’t have to put any extra effort. “The script is written beautifully — that’s its strength. I didn’t do anything extra on my own.”
Sharing his two bits on how stories and characters work, Chakravarthy believes a good character cannot stand out in a bad film. “When a film succeeds, the characters stand out. If the story is strong, the characters work well. Otherwise, even great characters won’t leave an impact if the story isn’t good,” he explains. He drives home his point by citing the example of W/o Vara Prasad and says that the film, which he calls one of his best performances, still did not work out as it was not received favourably. “I gave one of my best performances in W/o Vara Prasad, but though my character worked, the film didn’t do well. So, characters don’t shine individually — it all depends on the director’s presentation and how the story comes across.”
Heaping praise on director Kasyap, Chakravarthy says he was impressed by the filmmaker’s style and confidence. “I like his style, and he’s very confident about what he’s doing. He narrated the film with a realistic yet hilarious tone, which everyone liked,” he says, adding that Kasyap has freshly presented the film. “In my opinion, content is the queen and the director is the king. The story may not be new, but Kasyap has presented it freshly. The stretch in which my character gets involved with the events of Tharun Bhascker’s Dharahas will be hilarious.”
Though his character is serious, JD says his expressions will make people laugh. “Like in Money Money, where Brahmanandam and I acted seriously, but people laughed at our expressions — it’s similar here,” he says, adding that the director has brought exactly what he narrated onto the screen.
Opening up on his no-nonsense approach to films, Chakravarthy says he doesn’t believe in glossing over a bad script. “I actually don’t have much patience. I say things directly and don’t mince words. If I don’t like a story, I won’t give a sugar-coated answer — I’ll bluntly say I didn’t like it and don’t want to do it,” he says, attributing this mindset to his mentor Ram Gopal Varma, and says the learnings he acquired from him are the reason for him being particular about films he works in. “His knowledge, experience, intelligence, and thought process are even better now than during Shiva. In my opinion, it’s not about execution — it may be about the choice of films,” he adds, praising RGV’s calibre, recalling how he wrote Satya in just five hours. “A Hollywood publication listed 100 best films, and Satya was one of them. He will come up with more great films.”
Chakravarthy says there were multiple factors why he didn’t work in many Hindi films after the success of Satya, and that he doesn’t regret how things panned out. “We never imagined Satya would become such a huge success. We started multiple productions, and I was also involved in managing them. I don’t regret any decisions because I made them myself. I can’t blame others. Whatever I am today is because of me.”
He is one of the few actors who started his career playing the lead but defied the main character syndrome most actors suffer from, to act in a variety of roles, testifying to his versatility. He says he loves acting, and as long as he likes a role, he doesn’t think twice. “When someone enters the industry, they want to be a lead and enjoy that attention. It’s hard to move away from it. But for me, it doesn’t matter. I’ll do any role I like — hero, villain, or anything else. I love acting,” he concludes.