Gulshan Devaiah has been earning accolades for his antagonist act in Rishab Shetty’s Pan-India film Kantara: Chapter 1. The actor got talking about his role in the movie and more in a conversation with us.
How did the Kantara: Chapter 1 offer come your way and what was your reaction to being offered the role of a toxic prince?
Rishab Shetty wrote this role for me. We’ve known each other since 2019, and had this mutual admiration thing going on. There was a project announced before this with him, but it didn’t happen due to COVID lockdown. Finally, he called and offered me the part of Raja Kulashekhara and I thought I would be stupid if I refused this.
You seemed to be having a lot of fun with the part although the man is irredeemably evil?
Oh yes, this was loads of fun. Rishab gave me almost absolute freedom to interpret his writing and it was a very satisfying creative process to develop this part and work with the team. We all shared ideas freely with each other during filming.
How did you interpret this evil but insecure royal lush?
Kulashekhara does evil deeds but he’s not evil. He’s a very flawed human, who’s terribly insecure, perpetually drunk, extremely entitled and a good for nothing man. But you can see some fleeting tender moments with his daughter.
What is Rishab Shetty like as a co- actor and a director? Did he direct you closely or allowed you room to do your interpretation?
I have immense respect and admiration for his ability to handle stress, pressure, directorial duties and a very physically emotionally demanding lead performance. It’s very hard to pull all of this excellently. Like I mentioned earlier, I was allowed freedom to interpret but, of course, he’d give pointers and directions like any good director should.
The last hour, the core, is incredible visually. Was it daunting to shoot? Did you dub your own lines?
I speak Kannada because I am from Karnataka. I grew up speaking the language, so yes it’s my voice there. The shoot was pretty arduous for all of us because of the geography, scale and weather. The hardest thing for me was the all the horse sequences because I’m an inexperienced rider, just learned it for this film. But I’m proud I pulled it off during the war sequence. I really enjoyed being Kulashekhara and more so enjoyed making my debut in Kannada films with such a special film.
More Pages: Kantara: A Legend - Chapter 1 Box Office Collection , Kantara: A Legend - Chapter 1 Movie Review
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