It’s a movie that launched a thousand memes. “We thought people will watch it and spread a few good words. But Cinema Bandi went on to become the most popular Indian film on Netflix India, trending in its debut week in May 2021 and continues to get written about even today,” says Rag Mayur. He is one of the protagonists of the movie and says that nearly 100 days after its release on OTT, the film is still getting him the name and fame he so aspired for. “Ten years of hard work, over 300 weekends of acting classes, tutorials, workshops and research alongside my full-time job have all finally paid off,” says the new OTT breakout star.
Mayur plays Maridesh Babu, a spoof of the typically hyped-up Telugu hero, and won hearts and critical acclaim too. Maridesh is a barber who gets discovered by a local director to play the hero in a movie he is making. Cinema Bandi, which means Cinema Vehicle, incidentally was his launch vehicle too.
Mayur says not only did he grow his hair for the role, he visited a dozen rundown barbershops to understand the body language and the mindset of a barber. Interestingly, he also had to speak in the unique Kolar-Chittoor accent—a mix of Kannada, Telugu and Tamil—owing to the geographical proximity of the place the movie is based on. “The barbers keep a track of the cinema icons and are in tune with the trending songs and looks. I learned that from them.
There was a building under construction near my office and it had lots of migrant workers from Mulabagal and Kolar, where the movie is based and was shot. I would meet them during my lunch break and indulge in small talk with them. I recorded those conversations and played them back at night to get the accent right,” he explains. Mayur got the accent so well that it’s getting tough for him to convince people he is a Telugu from Hyderabad. “I live in Padmarao Nagar in Secunderabad. I can’t get more Telugu than this,” he quips.
This Hyderabadi youngster who works as a techie in Bengaluru may as well be the poster boy for what’s being called ‘non-nepo kid’. With no lineage or a surname that rings a bell, Mayur is giving hope to hundreds of youngsters on how to carve out a career in the snazzy world of showbiz.
Before he made his debut, like any good Telugu boy, Mayur completed his master’s in Delaware, the US, and got a techie job back in India—the perfect middle-class dream. “I opted for a job with a weekend off as I wanted to explore acting. I looked up the classifieds and posts on websites to find acting classes, auditions or theatre productions,” he says, adding, “I did all that and more. Got my photoshoot done. Left my profile with production companies. It took me 10 years to get my first break,” he says. Joining the Bangalore Little Theatre workshop was one of the best things he did, according to the actor. “I would club short weekend getaways with acting classes. I did a few intensive acting workshops in Puducherry that helped me lose my inhibitions and hone my skills,” he adds. That’s what finally helped him play the rather naive salon man who wears oversized baggy pants and thinks he looks cool with an extra swag.
Being picked for the main role in a YouTube short film titled Rama Kanavemira (with two million views now) got him introduced to the film crew of Cinema Bandi, which was shot in 30 days in May 2019. The cast and crew were expecting a theatrical release in 2020, but the team had to endure a long wait to taste sweet success, thanks to Covid. In hindsight, Mayur thinks that because the film had an OTT release, even film buffs in Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka got to watch it and write rave reviews.
Today, the film is among the cult movies in Telugu. “People have made posters saying Maridesh Babu is not a character, but an emotion,” he adds. Mayur has been busy pouring over the 21 scripts he was offered in the last few months. In his kitty is an anthology series produced by Eros International. He has also landed the lead in Scriptsville Syed’s new movie and plays an antagonist in a new outing by Mic Movies.
Considering he has got praise from top Telugu filmmakers such as Puri Jagannadh, Tarun Bhasker, Singeetam Srinivas, Mayur hopes 2021 is going to be a busy year. In fact, his Cinema Bandi director Praveen Kandregula compared him to Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao. What was the sweetest compliment? “Being compared to actor Kamal Haasan,” says Mayur as he gets ready for a photoshoot. Looks like Mayur is on full throttle.