Art never creates categories, but artistes do it to make their lives secure: Ashutosh Rana – Times of India

Actor Ashutosh Rana is returning to Kannada cinema after over a decade – he plays a black magician in the upcoming film, Avatara Purusha. He has been one of the few actors who has worked across different language film industries and now, across platforms as well. “I don’t look at where a project will release or in what language it is being made. What excites me is the role and content. If I am convinced with the team and story, I will do it regardless of where it might eventually release,” he says. Excerpts from a chat…

You return to Kannada cinema after a long time with Avatara Purusha…

It was a great experience, more so because of the team. Everyone – from Sharan sir to Suni to Pushkar – they all ensured that I was comfortable. It is a good subject. So, with the superlative combination of a good subject, role and team, I am very excited about Avatara Purusha.

You seem to be someone who readily works across different languages. How do you manage that?

I believe art is not language oriented. Cinema and art have their own language – one of emotions. I also try to convert my handicap of not knowing a language into my strength. This is through the power of listening. On set, I would be taking prompts to memorise a language that isn’t in my software. By listening to the prompter or to my co-actor, it adds magic to my performance. This involvement that they see when you are listening, makes the audience believe that you have given that extra edge. Emotions help play that bridge.

You were someone who worked beyond Bollywood long ago, much before we spoke about terms like ‘pan-India’ and ‘breaking barriers’…

When I started my career, my agenda was just to be known as an Indian actor. I wasn’t confined to any specific language industry. Like India – where we have many languages and aren’t the same, but are still one – I feel cinema is the same for me. I want people to remember Ashutosh Rana everywhere. To achieve this, you need to work across all languages. I have done Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali and Haryanvi films until now. Acceptance is always there. Take our food, for example. We find idli and dosa in Kashmir, and rasgulla in Bengaluru. Similarly, language is not a barrier for actors.

Do you find greater acceptance today?

I have been doing films in different languages since the 2000s. I never felt any reservations from audiences in appreciating me. Now, more people from all over the world are watching films. The acceptance level has increased and it is a good sign. Acceptance comes from content and performance and not from language.

Would this acceptance be because of the pandemic, when we were exploring more content?

Partially, I would say that is the reason. Back when satellite channels telecast dubbed films from south India – I think that laid the foundation for this. The pandemic definitely played the second big step towards boosting this. Everyone was stuck at home and the entertainment industry saw people through that phase of sorrow.

The emergence of OTT platforms is the other thing that happened during the pandemic. There is more space for actors to work and we might even move away from focusing just on the hero, heroine or villain…

I think whenever a platform emerges, there is an automatic increase in opportunities. We had just films initially. This was followed by television, where actors had another platform. We then had streaming platforms. I would say we still are trying to find who is the hero, villain or heroine in a web series. We believe in hero worship. We will see a time when we will see people dubbed as stars of these platforms, which is already happening. This is a natural tendency. But we should refrain from categorising. People should be known for characters and more democratically among the audience. Art never creates categories, but artistes do it to make their life secure. Every artiste is talented, but the catch is that they need to know their strengths. There is no comparison and competition eventually, as everyone does his or her job. But we tend to create those comparisons.