A man of cinema — that was Gulshan Devaiah’s first impression of Rishab Shetty when they met in 2019. The impression only strengthened when he saw Kantara (2022) and was admittedly blown away by it. “We tried to work together on two or three films, but it didn’t happen. I knew he’d call me someday. When he did, he said, ‘I’ve written a part for you’,” recalls Devaiah, who is being widely praised for his performance as the eccentric King Kulashekara in Kantara A Legend: Chapter 1.
Devaiah vividly remembers Shetty’s narration of the mythological drama. “When Rishab narrated it, I thought, ‘If I don’t do this, I’m an idiot’. I knew it wasn’t the biggest part or that I wasn’t the protagonist, but the main attraction was Rishab — his passion towards telling his stories. You learn by working with such people.”
Kantara A Legend: Chapter 1 marks Devaiah’s Kannada debut. Not many know that the actor hails from Karnataka. “I belong to Kodagu. I grew up speaking the language, so what a debut this is,” he exclaims.
Rishab Shetty
Before facing the camera for the Shetty and Rukmini Vasanth-starrer, Devaiah did extensive workshops to bring his character alive. His attempt was to go beyond the written word. “I came up with many ideas. Part of the character was made in the script, part in my head, and the rest was made on set. Rishab gave me a lot of creative freedom,” he smiles.
Recently, he called his character Kulashekara as an “entitled, jealous, good-for-nothing, perpetually drunk idiot.” Ask him to elaborate, and he says, “Humans like Kulashekara exist — perpetual drunks with sensitive egos. Even in our film industry, there are so many like that. If your approach is sincere, such characters will feel real. Kantara is a fantasy, but I had to give it the feeling of being real. You see glimpses of humanity in him, especially in his brief interactions with his daughter. From the film’s perspective, he’s a villain. From his perspective, he’s the beginning and end of everything — a self-indulgent person. Both views are valid.”
mid-day recently reported that after people showed up in theatres dressed up as Daiva, Shetty urged his fans to refrain from such acts, deeming them disrespectful. Devaiah reflects, “When I saw the film, it made me feel in a way I didn’t expect, and I respected that. I support the makers’ plea. People should refrain from making it a cheap gimmick for virality.”
