Akhil Iyer - Bangalore to Bollywood
"I might not be a Kapoor or any of the Khans, but with as much passion as them all, I hope to someday be a household name as well," says the very young and very new face in our Bollywood.
This young boy always wanted to be an actor. Along the way cricket and chemistry took over, but when he got to college the thespian in him made a comeback, and there he was, winning awards and having a great time doing it all.
After completing engineering in computer science at PESIT, Bangalore, he decided to do theatre full-time for a year in Bangalore. During that stint he worked with some of the city's theatre stalwarts like Arundhati Raja, Prakash Belawadi and Sharanya Ramprakash on productions such as Nice Faces Of Being and Reservoir Dogs. Also he was dabbling in modelling at that time and featured in both TVCs and print commercials for Sprite.
"Happy but not quite satisfied with just theatre I moved to Chennai in 2011 where I worked on a couple of Tamil films which are currently in post-production," mentions the actor. In Nijama Nizala, directed by P.V Srinivasan, he played the lead while in Iruvar Ondranal, by Anbu. G. he was the second lead.
On a break in Bangalore, Bollywood casting director Nandini Shrikent informed him of an audition for a film by director Arif Ali. "I shot the audition film at home on a mobile phone with my brother playing cameraman and my sister-in-law giving me lines. The team liked it and called me down to Mumbai for a face-to-face and another round of audition," says this enthusiastic actor.
And just like that his first foray into Bollywood came about and Lekar Hum Deewana Dil had him on the credits as Mahesh. The Romantic-Comedy shows him playing the "guy who doesn't get the girl!" But hopefully it will be a foot in the doorof this huge industry where dreams are made and broken. The film stars Armaan Jain and Deeksha Seth in lead roles and is produced by Illuminati Films and Eros. The director is Arif Ali and the film has terrific music by maestro A.R. Rahman. It released on the 4th of July.
Any facts, figures or references stated here are made by the author & don't reflect the endorsement of iU at all times unless otherwise drafted by official staff at iU. This article was first published here on 27th August 2014.