It has been an arduous journey for Ananda Chakrapani but once he hit 50, his career started showing up. The actor who played Priyadarshi’s father in Mallesham says he has never been so happy and ever since the film released he hasn’t stopped smiling. The role required him to bring out pain of a weaver without melodrama and Chakrapani carried his part with aplomb. He is now playing a constable’s role in Virata Parvam and Vijay Deverakonda’s father in a movie directed by Kranti Madhav.
Chakrapani made his debut in Narsing Rao’s Dasi in 1988 and followed it up with Chitikala Pandiri after which his career came to a nought. He buried his passion for acting and switched to printing, advertising for survival and now states he need not do films just for visibility and will work only if a character offered to him is good.
Chakrapani comes from a humble background in Miryalaguda. He reminisces, “As a child I watched lot of ‘Veedhi bhagvatham’, bhajans, ‘Chidathala Ramayanam’ and saw the artistes use dark blue or pink colour for make-up. The colours were bright and gaudy as audience had to see them in the dark in Petromax lights. I worked in a printing press after school hours to make ends meet and after matriculation moved to Hyderabad to work in another printing press. I bumped into a journalist who was an aspiring director, he would write plays and direct them. I joined his troupe. This didn’t help me get close to film industry but I learnt acting and got in touch with many people.”
That was how he bagged Dasi that won five national awards. With not much happening after Dasi , Chakrapani diverted his focus to writing poetry and reading literature and worked as copy writer and visualiser in an advertisement agency. The self made man shares, “I began writing for ad films designing concepts and directing corporate films and even established my own ad agency. I learnt everything by sheer observation and passion for the craft. In this midst, my mother fell sick and she needed my attention. In this process my business suffered and I had to shut it down.”
The actor says life has taught him many things and his pain came across in Mallesham, — a film that he did after 25 years. He related his life to the story, “I have seen and grew up amidst those problems. I went back to my childhood when I read the script. I never expected this reception and applause. Even god must have been tired of giving me so many problems and made Mallesham work so well at the box office, he says.”
Chakrapani is very positive about the opportunities being created by independent film makers, new generation writers experimenting with stories. He says as a matter of fact, “Whenever there is content-based film, you get nice roles. In formula films except the hero no one gets space but look at Mallesham . Even a small character got its importance. They were well structured and designed. I don’t want to be just seen,” says Chakrapani hopefully.
