Naveen Polishetty on Jathi Ratnalu, and how theatre helped shape him as an actor: 'I enjoy what I do and it reflects in my work'

Naveen Polishetty has a way with words that makes him an instant hit with the viewers. Be it his Youtube sketches, like the AIB’s Honest Engineering Campus Placement, which earned him wide recognition, or his spontaneous remarks on TV shows, the actor has set himself apart with his cool demeanour and wit. The success of his 2019 Telugu film, Agent Sai Sreenivas Athreya, followed by Nitesh Tiwari’s Chhichhore, has opened plenty of doors for him in the industry, but the journey, so far, has been anything but easy for him. “Agent Sai Sreenivas Athreya gave me an access card into the industry, and quite a few big production houses started approaching me with scripts. That was a big change for me, when I think about all those years when I was the one trying to approach studios for roles. It’s a big deal for an actor, especially when you’re not from the industry. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to get those calls. And sometimes, those calls may never come,” Naveen says. For the past few weeks, he has been busy promoting his latest Telugu film, Jathi Ratnalu, which has been produced by Nag Ashwin. The two have known each other for more than eight years, when Nag Ashwin was working as an assistant director in Telugu film industry. Naveen is all praise for the film’s producers, Nag Ashwin and Swapna Dutt, for backing the film. “I’ve known Nag Ashwin for a while and I like his work and have faith in him. It’s great when big production houses back films like Jathi Ratnalu. The success of such films will open more doors for more talent and interesting stories to tell on screen. I really believe that there’s a Naveen in every household. A lot of people are quite talented, but people have to truly believe in them for them to flourish and do big things in life.” Jathi Ratnalu, which loosely translates to ‘Jewels of the nation’, is the story of three friends, who are incredibly naive and dumb, and what happens when they are caught in a serious crime. Directed by Anudeep, Naveen plays the role of Jogipet Srikanth, who works at a bangles emporium in Jogipet, a small town in Telangana. The actor recalls being instantly impressed with Anudeep’s vision for the film and back then, for him, it felt like a good follow up to Agent Sai Sreenivas Athreya, in which he played a wannabe Sherlock Holmes in Nellore. “Jathi Ratnalu felt like a complete 180-degree turn compared to what I had done in my previous film. Right from the character’s gestures to the dialect he speaks, everything was new for me as an actor. When I take up a film, I want to strike a rapport with the team I’m working with and it’s the vibe we share that makes a lot of things work. What I loved the most about working with Anudeep and Nag Ashwin is that they were open to creative inputs and I had a lot of freedom as an actor to bring in my own interpretation to the role. Comedy is serious business. It’s definitely not as easy as it looks,” the actor says, adding, “The moment people see me they expect me to entertain them, be it in films or other events. That’s how I’m in general. You can’t fake it in front of an audience. I enjoy what I do and it reflects in my work too.” [caption id=“attachment_9407651” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Naveen Polishetty. Image from Twitter[/caption] His background as a theatre artiste has influenced his work in a lot of ways, especially in terms of how he interprets the character, and having worked on plenty of Youtube sketches and writers, he confesses that he has got a hang of what kind of things would work on screen. “Jathi Ratnalu has a unique sense of humour and the comic timing is integral to the storytelling. If that doesn’t work, then nothing will work. We had to work a lot on the character to shape his mannerisms and gestures, and then later improvise on them on the set. You have to keep digging within yourself to discover all this. That’s why the first time I hear a script, I’m very nervous and I keep wondering how I am going to pull this character. I need time to understand the character and be that person. That’s why I prefer doing one film at a time. It takes a lot of practice to be that entertaining on screen, and all this goes back to what I learn doing theatre and Youtube sketches. Back then, it was a ritual for me to read the script and write down what the character is, and then start building it from there. Theatre was my education in acting,” Naveen Polishetty reveals. It’s not just the audience, filmmakers, and production houses who have begun betting big on his talent. His father too has stopped asking him to leave everything and go to the US to do his Masters degree! “I was working in London for a year, and one fine day, I came back home and told my parents that I wanted to pursue acting. It was a big shock for them. A week later, my father began asking me why I haven’t bagged a role yet. It was hard for them to grasp how the industry works,” Naveen bursts out laughing recounting the incident. “A lot of my friends and relatives kept asking me a lot of questions to give me some sort of a reality check about how tough it is to make it as an actor. Thankfully, every now and then, something would happen which would keep them happy. I dabbled in theatre and one of the plays kept me busy for almost a year. Then, I began doing voice-overs and hosting events in Bangalore. When some of my Youtube videos went viral, I would share those links with my parents and tell them to check the comments. Every year, I had something to show to them, and it took a long time for me to start playing lead roles. But no matter what I did or achieved, they would always tell me that I should have gone to the US for my Masters degree. Finally, they stopped saying that when Agent Sai Sreenivas Athreya turned out to be a hit (laughs). Now, I’m looking forward to seeing how everyone reacts to Jathi Ratnalu.”