An actor prepares: Dheekshith Shetty on ‘Dasara’ and a career of experimentation

Among the few young Kannada heroes to have broken the language barrier in recent times, Dheekshith Shetty hopes Nani’s ‘Dasara’ will introduce him as an actor to all of India

In February 2020, a month before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world into lockdown and dealt a massive blow to the entertainment industry across the country, a small-budget Kannada film caught the imagination of the audience. 

Dia, directed by K S Ashoka — along with Love Mocktail by Darling Krishna — brought back old school, simple love stories to Kannada cinema. It also introduced Dheekshith Shetty, a household name already in Karnataka through the TV serial Naagini, to the movie-going audience. 

It’s been a little over three years since Dheekshith’s silver screen debut. The actor is now gearing up for Dasara, where he sports a mean, rugged look as Suri, and shares screen space with Nani and Keerthy Suresh. The film will hit theatres on March 30 in five languages.  

But this is just the tip of the iceberg, says Dheekshith, who has been silently working in the background on a string of projects in Kannada, Telugu and Tamil.    

“Because of the three-year gap, people keep asking me what I’ve been up to. I’ve worked on five films, as well as a couple of short films and anthologies during this period. We couldn’t release any in 2021-22 due to the pandemic, but this year, I will likely have a release every two months,” says Dheekshith, who is among the very few young Kannada actors in recent times to have broken the language barrier and seamlessly crossed over to other industries.

Dasara, directed by Srikanth Odela, is set in the backdrop of the Singareni coalmines near Godavarikhani of Telangana. While this is Dheekshith’s first big banner release in any language, it is not his maiden foray into Telugu. He has already worked on three Telugu projects, one of which was Meet Cute, an anthology directed by Deepthi Ghanta (Nani’s sister) for SonyLIV.  

“I was chosen for Dasara thanks to my work in Meet Cute. It’s my first time sharing screen space with a huge star like Nani. We have a lot of misconceptions about how stars behave, but watching Nani sir at work from such close quarters made me realise that discipline is crucial to reach that stage. The entire team was very professional, and never made me feel like an outsider,” the self-effacing actor says.