HYDERABAD: Anil Geela has regaled us with his antics on YouTube – from the Kiki Challenge to the newer episodes of the Telugu YouTube show My Village Show. Now, this talented young artiste has gone ahead to give cinematography and editing a shot for a new song Avva Gangavva, based on the elderly YouTuber from Telangana. Anil says as someone in the entertainment industry, challenging himself to do better and get more creative is all in a day’s work.
This resident of Lambadipally village in interior Telangana has also recently debuted on the silver screen alongside his favourite Telangana actor - Vijay Deverakonda in the 2020 movie World Famous Lover. “It was a role that actor Rahul Ramakrishnan was to don, but due to some time constraints, he could not and then I came on board.
That led to more opportunities and now I await my next movie SR Kalyana Mandapam,” he adds. Anil became an internet sensation when he won the Kiki Challenge in 2018 along side Tirupati, both from Lambadipalli in Siddipet district. His video with Tirupati ploughing a field and dancing to the song kiki, do you love me garnered 16 million views online.
Incidentally, Anil is not a farmer, but a teacher who accidentally became an artiste. He was helping the Village Show team with some educational videos for students but his talent and dialect got him opportunities to act in front of the camera. Geela, pronounced Jeela, says that he always loves a good challenge. “I felt that people always perceived me as a rural youngster.
I felt that with the right styling, I can look like a boss boy. So I recently got some formals designed for myself and did a photoshoot and surprisingly, I did land a modelling assignment,” says the handsome 25-year-old artiste with three lakh subscribers for Anil Geela Blogs on YouTube. His personal favourites are Superwoman and BBK Vines.
In this world of cut-throat social media competition, how does he think he will survive. “While most of my film shooting work happens in Hyderabad, I live in a village and living there is as good as living in the Big Boss house. What I do, who I meet and when I return home to sleep are all scrtunised. I am surviving, actually thriving here, and am sure the social media game is going to be a winning one too, he says.
Incidentally, the internet is full of questions about Anil’s life. When you ask him the question his fans want to know – about his dream girl, he blushes. “Everyone says I am an eligible bachelor and I hope to find the right girl soon. I am also doing a web series with a love story script. Hope both the show and my partner work out well for me,” he says. As his show on Kaleshwaram dam still trends, he looks forward to doing more work both onscreen and offscreen in 2021.