While the team of Kattu Kathe, which translates to ‘built up story’ is awaiting its release on June 15, all eyes are on actor Surya who plays the hearing-impaired protagonist in the film. The youngster, who started off as a dancer, dreamt of becoming a choreographer. It was during his struggle to establish himself as a dancer that he switched gears and took to acting.
“While I was seeking opportunities, I landed up with Mandya Ramesh, who advised me to take up acting,” starts Surya, who is self-trained in hip-hop, Bollywood dancing and b-boying. Soon, Surya put dancing aside and took to acting with his “heart and mind”. He worked with Ramesh for two years, studying, assisting him and acting in plays with the senior actor’s theatre academy, Natana, in Mysuru.
“Every time we staged plays, Ramesh would invite people from the film and TV industry to watch our performance,” says the actor, who was selected by TV producer Shruti Naidu and director Ramesh Indira after watching one such play. He was cast as the lead for the series, Devi.
He is thrilled about acting in films and looks forward to the release of Kattu Kathe.
“It is nice to be in the industry today as new themes and actors are encouraged. Kattu Kathe has a totally different look as Raj Praveen comes from an animation background and has used brilliant techniques to narrate this story.”
He elaborates about his character saying, “My character is not born hearing impaired, but ends up unable to hear after an incident.”
How easy or tough was it for him to depict such a character? “I have a pet called Pari. One evening, I was just talking to her and observed her reactions and decided to incorporate certain body language of hers to build my character with a certain ruggedness,” says the actor, who now wants to focus only on films.