Actor Abhimanyu Singh, who is next going to star in the much-anticipated OG, gets candid with The Pioneer about his humble beginnings, collaborating with Pawan Kalyan, and more.
SHIKHA DUGGAL
It’s the second time when Abhimanyu Singh and Pawan Kalyan are collaborating together in the upcoming movie OG, where he plays the role of a cop who has grey shades. Touted as a high-octane action-thriller, the film went on the floors in February. So we quickly called up the actor, for an exclusive Tollywood interview and he remarked from humble beginnings, “People often get baffled between Biharis and Bhojpuris because there are multiple languages spoken in my birth town. I hail from Patna — when we speak, we speak with humour. It was when I was totally into theatre that I started getting television offers. But, I had to really struggle to be part of mainstream cinema.”
By struggle what did he mean? He continued, “Financial crisis, obviously. I was travelling to and fro from buses. I was supposed to take care of my rent! I couldn’t have compromised, didn’t want my career to hamper because of my silly mistakes in a stranger city. There was another battle going on inside my head — whether I’ll be able to make it into this industry
or will be a failure. I know of some of my batchmates from the theatre group, who are forty years old now and didn’t receive any offers from the entertainment industry. I could have cracked a UPSC exam but I wanted to do something from scratch and that was to act. Graduating from one of the best colleges in the country didn’t make any sense, then.”
It was Ram Gopal Varma who approached our interviewee for his south debut and he turned out to be the true hero of an independent film. Everyone loved this underdog coming from Bollywood and he had so many moments of fame down south. He described to us, “Rakthacharitra opened doors for me in the south industry — and I am collaborating with Pawan Kalyan for the second time. All the time he’s into changing his image: he doesn’t want to be looked at as a stagnant actor. He has a lot of pressure on him, I see that on sets. It’s very important for his film to do well at the box office. He just wants his followers to be inspired because they do revere him like an idol in the South.”
Commenting on pan-India fever, the actor asserted, “It’s just a wave. Right now, this is the way cookie crumbles! I came across many directors when I was doing television who didn’t know too much, but were able to crack the code.”
While the actor wasn’t allowed to reveal all the nitty-gritty details about the character, in conversation with him, we realised that he’s turning out consistently through his stunning performances. His few performances have remained iconic for those in the know! And this is a cinema’s workaholic. Accomplished and sweeping in the South!
