By S.N. Venkatnag Sobers

Actor Kishore Kumar, who was recently seen playing the role of Forest Officer ‘Murali’ in the superhit Kannada movie ‘Kantara’, forayed into the movie industry through ‘Kanti’, starring Sri Murali and Ramya, in 2004. He played a negative character, Beera, which earned him the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. From then on, there is no looking back.

Having acted in many Kannada movies, Kishore cast his spell in the Tamil Film Industry through ‘Polladhavan’ starring Dhanush and Ramya. And guess what! His first Tamil movie got him the Best Villain award at the Vijay Awards. Since then, he has been one of the sought-after actors in the Tamil filmdom too.

Kishore did not restrict himself to Kannada and Tamil cinemas. In 2006, he tried his hand in Telugu with the movie ‘Happy’ starring Allu Arjun and Genelia D’Souza and later the Malayalam film ‘Thiruvambadi Thamban’ in 2012.

This year, he made a leap into Bollywood playing the role of Inspector Prakash in the movie ‘Sikandar’ starring Salman Khan and Rashmika Mandanna. He has also featured in several series on OTT platforms, including ‘The Family Man’, ‘She’, ‘Parachute’, among others.

His intense passion towards acting brought him back to theatre  after a long gap through the play ‘Love Letters – Ninna Preethiya Naanu’, which was staged at Kiru Rangamandira in Kalamandira recently. Star of Mysore caught up with Kishore for a free-wheeling chat while he was on a break after rehearsal. Excerpts…

Star of Mysore (SOM): Having acted in many films, what is your view on theatre?

Kishore: Theatre for me is a free medium of expression. In cinema, we as actors compromise a lot as we are bound by a few restrictions. The focus will be on recovering the investment, fulfilling the expectations of the people and many other factors, including compromising with artistic expressions. While in the theatre, there are no such compromises, where there is a lot of freedom to express.

SOM:  Being a senior actor yourself, what is your take on growth of theatre in the State?

Kishore: I have not been following theatre of late. But, if it has stayed and grown consistently for many years, it means that the theatre has a strong foundation and has been successful in achieving goals and continues to inspire even to this date.

While it is difficult to retain the audience for cinema today, theatre has been successful in retaining the audience. Despite coming out with good movies, we have been failing to reach the audience, but in theatre, whenever there is a good production, people watch to encourage the realm. Theatre has survived and continues to grow despite the evolution of many other forms of entertainment in the modern era.

SOM: Talking about movies, you said it has failed to keep audience intact. According to you, the reasons?

Kishore: According to me, there might be many reasons. Making a movie will be in our hands and also with the producers. The story also plays a crucial role, as well as the casting. But, with the change in audience taste and multiple mediums available for entertainment, hope flickers about people coming to theatre to watch movies.

Many involved in cinema industry complain about a drastic fall in attention span. But, when you look at the audience watching series on OTT, the attention span is not an issue. What I believe is that we, as movie makers, are failing to reach the audience. While a few have the expertise in reaching out to the movie buffs, some lack the expertise needed to ensure the movie ends up being successful.

SOM: Do you think affection towards language plays a vital role in movies being successful?

Kishore: Definitely yes. If you look at recent years, love towards the language is on the wane. Many children today are deprived of the opportunity to speak in Kannada language. The moment they go to school, they converse in English. When you do not speak in your own language, you won’t be aware of vocabulary and also lack the ability to understand the dialogues on screen and eventually lose interest in watching the movies. Hence the language plays a very important role in touching the audience.

SOM: How, as an actor, do you adapt to theatre, series and movies?

Kishore: The difference between series and movies  is  very thin. As I said earlier, there is not much freedom as actors in films. But theatre is a very different arena. I am in a learning phase, having returned to theatre after a long gap. When compared to the younger days,  theatre has become interesting and challenging.

While discussing with my team about theatre being monotonous due to repeated shows, I realised that the audience vary with every show and you have a different experience. For me, theatre is a continuous exploration where the interaction with the audience grows each time. But it is not the case in cinema; once the shoot is complete, it is done. In theatre, there is a scope for improvement with each show, while it is not the case in movies.

SOM: Being a multi-lingual actor, where does the Kannada Film Industry stand?

Kishore: I believe there is still much to be done in the Kannada Film Izndustry. Each time a good movie fails, it is a big failure. If we are unable to convince the audience about our efforts, it is a failure, and each time a movie fails, the gap between the audience and the industry widens. In Tamil and Telugu movies, despite them being of diverse cultures, they have continued to cater for the audience belonging to different genre, reaching both the older and younger generation.

We had achieved it a long time back, but somehow, we lost our way, unable to bring back the gamut of audience we enjoyed earlier. I believe that film education also counts. Children have to be taught how to watch and analyse movies. Only then will we be able to build a strong medium of entertainment and keep the industry going.

SOM: We have come across many who aspire to become actors but fail to impress. According to you, how patience counts for an actor?

Kishore: For an individual, it is important to know what he or she is chasing. If you are looking at recognition, then again, it depends on what level. I myself is still not aware about the level of recognition I enjoy. You cannot compare one individual to another. Moreover one cannot compare oneself to actors like Superstar Rajinikanth. It depends on our expectations. When our expectations are lower, it won’t be a big burden. If you need to be successful, patience definitely plays a key role.

SOM: Thank you so much for your time.

Kishore: Thank You.