Little Ganapathi watched in awe as his elder brother Chidambaram opened the doors of a car and got out in style. He was acting as the villain in the serial Alippazham and a car to ferry him to and from the location was one of the perks of the job. Ganapathi dreamed of a day when he too could get down from a car in style and unknowingly, his brother, now a camera assistant, became a part of his inspiration to enter the world of glitz and glamour. Ganapathi’s other inspiration was his father Satish Poduval, an assistant to leading directors. This ensured that he got a chance to visit the sets and experience firsthand the magic of cinema unfurling before his eyes.
He says, “Cinema was my passion since childhood and visiting the sets enhanced it.” While in class V, Ganapathi acted in the film Before the Rains which went to the Cannes and then began his stint as a child actor with Vinodayatra, Ali Bhai, Lollipop, etc. He acted in full-length and short films, serials and ad films and even dubbed for the younger version of Prithviraj in Anadabhadram. He took a three-year break to finish his studies and plunged right back into filmdom after class XII. The child actor is all grown up and today, Ganapathi has acted in a clutch of roles — though small in terms of screen space but noticeable ones. Kammattipadam (as Charlie), Kavi Uddheshichathu (Shukkoor) and Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol (Jithin) extracted the best of him.
Ganapathi has had the luck to act with A-listers like Mohanlal, Dileep and Biju Menon. “I learned a lot from every actor I worked with. I learnt how to behave on the sets and also picked up tips. Each of them taught me that not only acting in front of the camera but also what transpired behind the camera was important. From Mohanlal, I learnt about being punctual on the sets. From Rajeev Ravi, I understood how a great filmmaker could be so simple and humble. He treats everyone equal on the sets. I could go on and on,” he trails off. The passion and commitment to films has found fruit and Ganapathi has got some very good projects in hand. He names them, “Honeybee-2, Puthan Panam, Georgettan’s Pooram (in which he is acting with Dileep after 10 years) and Chunkzz where I play an engineering student.”
