Sujeeth Rathod
Sujeeth Rathod in Chithrakatha.PR Handout

Sandalwood is flooded with newcomers like never before. Young talents are entering the film industry with the hopes of making it big and here we have one such budding actor in the form of Sujeeth Rathod, who is donning grease paint with upcoming thriller Chitrakatha.

Hailing from a village in Hubballi, Sujeeth Rathod did his schooling in different parts of Karnataka, before landing in Bengaluru to do an engineering course."My father was a government employee and he used to get transferrred to other places on regular basis. So, my early education happened in many places," the actor begins. But it came as an advantage as it gave him exposure to new atmosphere and people.

"That helped me to become a constant learner. So, I could learn karate, dance, gymnastics and acquire many other skills even as I kept myself busy with academic studies," Rathod says. Having brought up in a family doctors and engineers, was there any opposition over a career in film industry? "My parents wanted me to complete my education first. I decided to give it a shot in films only after returning from the UK following my successful completion of a master degree.

My parents are practical and have been supportive. If I had told them that I am going to become a singer, they, probably, might have opposed the idea as they know that I do not posses singing skills. But as far as acting is concerned, they used see me perform in skits and plays in family and other cultural events. So, they had confidence in me," Rathod, who did his engineering in the BMS college, explains.

The young talent nurtured the dream to become an actor since he is was in the eighth standard after accidentally he got to perform in an event in Mumbai, but he was no mood to enter the film industry in a hurry.

"I returned from the UK in 2016. I started searching for opportunities to work and attended a lot of auditions. During the course, I met Prajwal M Raja, who was interested in making good movies in Kannada. I don't know how others treated him, but I respected his dreams," the 26-year old opens up about how it all kick-started.

His first movie was supposed to be E, which was previously titled as Planet Earth. The project was stopped midway. It was in this film that he met director Yashasvi Baladitya, who was the art director in the flick."

"When Prajwal and I were looking for a good script, he approached us with the script. He narrated the story for five hours and we did not get bored for a minute. Thus the journey kick-started," Rathod claims.

The team has worked with utmost devotion since then on the project. "From the moment we decided to team up, we only wanted the content to win. Seriously, we are not hoping for individual's success, but we want people to appreciate the film as a whole. As a result, we concentrated on the script and constantly made improvisation to the story. I can confidentally say that we are perfect from the logical point of view in the story due to our extensive homework. The story has everything that people love to see in a good thriller," he adds..

The movie, which has been shot in Kerala, Mangaluru, Chikkamagaluru and many other places, will hit the screens on 5 July.