Ankith Madhav, a model, actor and voice-over artist, will be seen in the upcoming film Solo.
The voice on the phone is stylish. It can switch accents, sound elegant or casual, and laugh easily. Ankith Madhav is a natural when it comes to throwing his voice about — and he has been doing that a lot, for at least 100 to 150 television commercials, he figures. But the bigger interest is in acting, and he is, as we speak, waiting for his newest release — Solo. He plays Sreekanth, who goes to see Neha Sharma to seek her hand in marriage, in the segment titled Rudra. This makes it his fifth appearance in a film, after countless modeling assignments.
“Bejoy Nambiar is an amazing director,” Ankith gushes with admiration. That’s not the name he was born with.
Unnikrishnan Madhavan sounded too long for people to remember it, his astrologer Adarsh had told him in Thiruvananthapuram. And there is already an Unni Mukundan that he might be confused with. So Adarsh suggested Ankith and the young model took it with him to Mumbai. That’s where he works, after an engineering degree and a dual specialised MBA. “In an MNC, yes. But every weekend I take my bags and go in search of creative work,” he says.
The interest began seven years ago when he became part of a show called ‘Mr Handsome’, a reality show run by a newspaper. “I became first runner-up. The judges on the show were directors Shaji Kailas, Raja Senan and veteran actor Maniyanpilla Raju. The show needed you to show your impromptu acting skills. And the judges told me there was a spark. ‘Why don’t you try it seriously?’ they asked me. That brought some confidence and I decided to respect their comments,” he says.
And so he came to cinema, first as a character called
‘Mr Roy’ in the film Chekavar six years ago. Ordinary and Karmayodha followed. But a noticeable character came in the fourth film, Namboodiri Yuvavu @ 43, where he plays the heroine’s brother.
And then came Solo. He cherishes spending time with Dulquer Salmaan, with their common topics and common friends like Siddharth Menon.
In between the modeling, the voiceovers and the acting work, Ankith also found another entry into show biz - as a host of ‘D4Dance’, in ten episodes recently. “I have always been a stage man, even as a child, trying mimicry and mono-act and dancing,” he says.
Ankith, who hails from Pattambi and Tirur, did his schooling in Thiruvananthapuram, and that explains his neutral accent. He now waits for the day when he can be in cinema full-time and take a sabbatical from his corporate job.
