Spirited in reel success

After an impressive debut, and just three years in Sandalwood, this actor is one of the finest finds in recent times. Dhananjay Kumar, is on the rise, with his latest release Jessie directed by Pawan Wadeyar, doing well at the Box Office. The boy from Hassan who was an engineering graduate, quit his job at Infosys to follow his acting dreams.

One of his upcoming films Badmaash even impressed Bollywood star Salman Khan. The actor who has atleast four films up for release this season including Allamma (detailing the life and times of the 12th century Vachana poet and saint Allama Prabhu directed by TS Nagarbharana), Badmassh, Vijayaaditya, and Eradanesala, speaks to Bengaluru Chronicle about his films, and much more.

“I am extremely happy at the way my career is panning out. With the success of Jessie, my responsibility as an actor has doubled. I am glad that I have been accepted as a ghost! It was a challenge to play a negative character, and when I finally saw the end product, and the audience responded saying that I had done a fair job, it was an amazing feeling. Apart from the cast and crew, no one, including my family, knew that I was playing the role of a ghost,” says Dhananjay.

In reality though, ghosts and paranormal phenomena are far from his logical thought process. “I don’t get scared watching horror movies except for Naa Ninna Bidalare starring Anant Nag Sir and Lakshmi Madam. Anant Nag Sir, who is one of the greatest actors in Indian cinema, portrayed the role with such excellence, it sends shivers down my spine, even today. I personally would not have accepted Jessie if it was just another love story. The interesting twist in the film keeps the audience engaged, and kept me hooked,” he says.

Recently, news about Bollywood star Salman Khan being connected to a Kannada film Badmaash created a buzz in namma film industry. Khan even tweeted, after watching the trailer, “Akash, the debutant director of Badmaash has done a brilliant job.” Needless to say Dhananjay is thrilled, “Though, it was a commercial venture, the content was very relevant to today’s society. The content is what made me work for it. I am hoping for its success. We are planning a private screening of the movie for Salman Khan too, and will release it thereafter,” Dhananjay adds.

For Allamma, a film about the great poet and saint, Dhananjay trained hard, learning yoga, playing the mridangam to do justice to the character on the big screen. “We all know about Aristotle and Socrates but most Kannadigas are not aware of a personality like Allama Prabhu, so close home. I feel that it is the duty of every Kannadiga to make Allama a universal name, and this film aspires to do that,” he says, adding that it is very rare to act in such epic films of such great quality with a director like TS Nagabharana shouldering it.

The actor also has Eradane Sala with his special director Guru Prasad who launched him in Director’s Special. The actor is busy, we all know that. but the other aspects of film making are honing his creative spirit like script writing. He has also been interacting with college students and attending functions to connect with his audience.