Dheekshith Shetty, who is gearing up for his big-ticket release Dasara, discovered his calling in acting when he was a second year LLB student “I was searching for a part-time job to support my family. One of my friends, who is also a junior artist, introduced me to acting.
Once I started performing, I realised that I required some formal training.” says Dheekshith, who later joined the Acting and Performing Institute in Bengaluru to hone his skills. After a stint in the city’s theatre circuit, followed by a teaching job for a basic acting course, Dheekshith moved on to working in Kannada TV serials, where he earned recognition for his portrayal of Arjun/Partha in the daily soap Naagini before cementing his position as one of Kannada cinema’s rising talents, with his debut feature Dia (2020).
Dheekshith credits his theatre background for building a career across all mediums like stage, television, OTT and films. “TV and cinema are very different from theatre. The former is a dialogic medium, while the latter is a visual one. Nevertheless, theatre is the basic foundation for the profession of acting. I believe every actor must do theatre”, Dheekshith says. Though Dasara is Dheekshith’s most high-profile role so far, he has been around in the Telugu industry for a while now.
Explaining his entry into Telugu cinema, Dheekshith says, “After Dia, I was supposed to work in a film called The Rose Villa. What was supposed to be a Kannada film turned into a Telugu one due to a twist of fate, and that is how my Telugu debut happened.” Dheekshith later went on to act in Mugguru Monagallu and Meet Cute (produced by his Dasara co-star Nani), before getting a chance to play the role of Soori in Dasara.
Though he started off by mugging up lines in Telugu in his debut film, he soon picked up the language by real-time immersion and conversations on the sets, an exercise that benefited him greatly once he landed on the sets of Dasara, where he had to speak in the Telangana dialect spoken in the Godavarikhani region.
Dheekshith’s role in Dasara is a stark contrast from all the urban characters he has played so far. Speaking about how transformed into Soori, Dheekshith says, “Srikanth Odela, our director, had a very clear vision about how the character was going to look, talk and walk like.
I had a lot of material to base my character on, so it wasn’t particularly difficult. And also since we almost shot the entire film in this 22-acre set that was recreated as a village in the most authentic way possible, I felt like I was in an actual village and after getting into costumes and make-up, I felt like I was actually living the character. The atmosphere of the sets lent itself greatly into my performance in Dasara.In addition to Srikanth’s inputs, I also got a lot of help from Srinath and Suresh, the film’s writers, who also hailed from Godavarikhani.
Dheekshith also notes that what sets Soori apart from his previous, more urbane characters was the incorporation of method acting in the former.
Dheekshith says, “It all boils down to the kind of script you are working with. For an urban role, or for films that you are shooting simultaneously with other films, you do not require to be a method actor nor do you possess the luxury to adopt such an exhaustive approach. Also, some roles benefit from a spontaneous school of acting. I had to do method acting for Dasara. I needed to live the character to be a Soori, I needed to dig deep into hid psyche, in order to crack certain emotions.”
Dheekshith has Blink and KTM releasing later this year in Kannada, roles which he admits required him to take up method acting again. He says that his role in Meet Cute got him Dasara and his role in Dasara and this role will pave the way to more Telugu projects. What is he looking forward to, as an actor? “Everything else aside, it is the love of people that keeps me going.It is what I require the most as an actor”, says Dheekshith, signing off.