EXCLUSIVE! Gulshan Devaiah calls Rishab Shetty's performance in Kantara: Chapter's epic climax 'incredible': 'I watched his process live and...'

Rishab Shetty’s Kantara: Chapter 1 has been garnering box office numbers and love from the audience ever since its release. In the epic mythology folklore, Gulshan Devaiah has also received appreciation from all around the corners for his portrayal of the menacing King Kulashekara.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Gulshan Devaiah spoke about his approach towards the character of King Kulashekara, witnessing Rishab Shetty’s towering performance and other aspects

Edited excerpts from the interview:

How Rishab Shetty approached you. Was there any audition process?

There was no audition process. Rishabh wrote it for me. He called me one day at like 12 o’clock at night, and I didn’t pick up the phone. I am not answering anybody’s phone at 12 o’clock. So, I called him the following day at a reasonable hour, and he didn’t pick up. But then finally he called, and he said, “I wanted to tell you that we have something.” I said, I knew you have something for me because I knew that one day you are going to call me. I have known him from 2019. We had tried to, he had pitched a few projects, but those things didn’t work out for a variety of reasons, including COVID.  He even announced a film with me. But then I knew that, somewhere, it would come, and then we had both expressed our desire to do something together. So we met through a common friend. I knew it was going to come someday or the other. That’s how I got it. And according to what he said, he said that while we were writing it, we were thinking of you.

Any references while playing King Kulashekara’s character

I think it was mostly based on my imagination. And I wanted to play a lazy, jealous, entitled, good-for-nothing drunk. And who also has a very sensitive ego and is self-confident. So, I mean, I’ve lived enough life to have sort of borrowed lots of details from a variety of people that I might have met or known. So I think mostly it’s the concept of imagination based on the text that was given to me.

On perfectly balancing the subtlety and menace while portraying the character

Acting is not like math. You can’t have a formula for it, an accuracy formula. It’s not feeling.
It’s also about finding truth in the moment. And it’s also finding all of those things in an environment that is really not conducive to all of that. It’s the environment around you is always challenging you. So, because it’s made up, right? Everything is made up. The people are made up, the lines are made up. But yet we have to deliver it in a way that people feel that this is real. So, there can’t be any mathematical equation. It’s very subjective. Another actor, like you said, that somebody else, we can’t imagine somebody else.

But I think there are so many other actors who have done it in their own way. And we should have been good or better, or I don’t know. It’s a subjective thing. And part of an actor’s preparation and training is also that you approach it in your own way. And you have to try and make it work to the best of your ability in the given circumstances.  And that’s all there is to it. The sense of balance will come based on the approach when you don’t get carried away too much. Sometimes, what happens is, particularly when playing villains, people get too carried away with the aesthetics. Like how to look, how my voice should be and all that.

But I don’t have that approach. My approach is always like, Who is this person? What is this person like? What is this person’s insecurity? And Raja Kulasekhar is a man of a lot of flaws. In fact, he has the only thing I think that you see that there is some goodness in him is probably when he is interacting with his daughter. That kind of innocence. There is some sharpness over there. There is some genuine connection, something. I mean, it may not be a great sort of thing, but there is something there that he has. And he also manipulates his daughter.
But there is some kindness and some genuine love that he has towards his daughter. Which is, I mean, in the film, it doesn’t need to be explored more. But that’s what makes people human.
He does very evil things. And he’s vengeful and he’s evil. And he’s a good-for-nothing piece of shit. That’s what he is. He’s drunk all the time. But nobody is only bad. They have some goodness in that also. And then I think I could find that little spark that people go, What is this? Like, you know, we can’t expect this from this guy. But that’s why we are not perfect. Humans are not like that. We’re all like in shades of grey. That was my approach. I did not get carried away with the aesthetics. Like he should have a physique and nothing. He’s a lazy drunk. He’s not going to have muscles. He’s mostly a man eating bad food and getting drunk all the time and not moving a muscle. So, it’s a false sense of power that he also has. So, that’s the concept of my imagination, and that’s how my approach was.

On garnering appreciation from celebs like Sandeep Reddy Vanga, Madhur Bhandarkar, Manoj Bajpayee, Jr NTR, Yash and others.

All credit to Rishab Shetty. All credit to Rishab and their team, the core team. I am just a small part of it. Like, I have contributed in my own way. But then the larger credit will always go to Rishab. And then maybe Arvind (Kashyap, DoP) and then Ajneesh (Loknath, music director). I think they are the three pillars of Kantara . They are the ones who are really. If there is any special feeling that people get from watching, it’s because of the three of them. The main pillar, of course, is Rishab. (7:54) And you know, when it comes to social media, like I have been watching all the comments and everything. (8:01) Like, particularly people are commenting after watching the movie on the trailer clip.

On performance, getting appreciation on social media

It’s nice that people are saying all these things. This is not going to last forever. I am enjoying it for what it is.  I welcome all the good things as well as the criticisms that people have. I welcome it with open arms. I will keep how much I need I don’t want to take it too seriously. But I am also used to hearing this kind of appreciation because, I don’t know, since the beginning it’s just like, you know, my career has slowly, slowly, slowly kept growing, kept growing, kept growing. And then more people came. There still seem to be a lot more people who are happier than I am with the success of Kantara.  And that’s also making me very happy because they were rooting for me. They wanted me to sort of be in a place where they wanted to see me. So, all that is happening and that’s making me really happy. I am enjoying the journey, but there is I don’t know where cinema will take me next. So, I am looking forward to that.

On playing the character, which is physically and mentally exhausting

I think the tough one to shoot was the war scene where I am on the horse. Technically very challenging. You have to control the animals. There are so many people. There is fire. There is thunder. Animals, horses, can be very sensitive and moody.  And despite that, you have to just learnt. I am not an expert rider. I am a very entry-level horse rider. So, for me to be able to control the horse on my own, reset the horse and get it to stop exactly where we need to stop, get it to look in directions that are not looking into the camera, all of those things, while the performance that was required by the script was a huge technical challenge. And the entire war sequence took more than 20 days to shoot. And I was on the horse for like half the time. I had a scabies infection. I had like an infected boil in my thigh. You can say my ass, actually. So, I was working. So many things were happening, but that’s okay. I don’t want to exaggerate. That was tough, man. That was like… Technically, in that weather, inside the forest, with all the smoke and the heat and sweating, all the clothes used to be wet by the time we were done. So, yeah. That was tough.

On witnessing Rishab Shetty’s performance in the epic climax scene

I watched it live. I watched his process live.  And he has so much passion, energy, man. Like, that guy, he’s directing the film. He’s also sitting in full costume with all that mud and ash on him and all that. And he’s going over. And it’s difficult because when you’re doing stunts, you don’t get it. And they were like wire stunts and, like, jumps and rolls and all that.  He’s doing it over and over and over and over again. Sometimes it takes, like 14 takes to get it right. Get all the expressions right and everything.  But he’s just going over and over and over. So, to see that kind of physical endurance he was putting. Without the mind being there, your body will not go there. So, I think his mind was really strong for him to say that I’m going to do it again. I’m going to do it again. Incredible. That’s really incredible effort. I really appreciate people who are hardworking.  And he’s one of the hardest working people I know.  And he’s doing it in the most respectful way. He’s a tough guy. All the stress and the pressure and while directing and performing, is incredible. At a scale that he’s never been. He’s never done anything at this scale. And for him to do that, you have to have a mind that’s, like, super strong. And a mind that can deal with all kinds of stress and pressure. Incredible.