From Pitch to Ted Talk

Actor Naveen Kasturia is basking in the success of TVF Pitchers and has now been invited for an Ted talk that is being hosted independently on October 28

If the film Sulemani Keeda was the high point of actor Naveen Kasturia’s career in 2014, web series Pitchers put him into spotlight this year. The five-episode production, by the online entertainment network The Viral Fever (TVF), told the story of four start-up aspirants.Kasturia will be giving a Ted Talk in Chennai on Sunday for an entertaining act, TVF Pitchers Night. He’ll be accompanied by TVF regulars ­- Jitendra Kumar, Deepak Mishra, Vipul Goyal and Nidhi Bisht.

The engineer-turned-banking consultant-turned-AD-turned-actor tells us about life post-Pitchers. “Suddenly from doing blink-and-miss roles, I recently got to do a cameo in a Yash Raj production, Man’s World,” he begins.His character Naveen’s inspirational speech in Pitchers has also put him in a tight spot of sorts. He says, “I have been invited by a college for a TED talk on October 28. See, on the show, my speech was written by Biswapati Sarkar, it had a background score, that’s why it created an impact. At the TED, I need to talk intelligent stuff for 20 minutes. My truth will come out (laughs). May be I should go back to Biswapati again for my speech.”

The 31-year-old from Delhi has made good friends with the TVF bunch. Sarkar was his roomie in Mumbai and that’s when he learnt that Pitchers was in the pipeline. Then there’s Arunabh Kumar (the TVF founder), who gave Kasturia his “acting break” with a spoof on MTV Roadies. But Jitendra Kumar happens to be his best buddy.

And, if he manages to use his free time well now, his TVF association can take a new turn. “I am trying to rework a script that I wrote five years ago. Arunabh suggested why not turn this into a web series,” says Kasturia, who eventually wants to make films.Meanwhile, he is being careful about the acting offers. Thanks to a female fan, who pointed out he’s never found love in any of his films. “Now, I’ll only sign a film where I get the girl,” chuckles Kasturia.

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