Akash Premkumar of Vella Raja fame on cloud nine

With the release of the first and the biggest Tamil web series on Amazon Prime, Vella Raja has been gaining a high level of momentum because of the versatile set of actors in the series. Bobby Simha is the protagonist of the show while the other characters are played by Parvatii Nair, Gayathrie, Kaali Venkat, Yuthan Balaji, Akash Premkumar and Sharath Ravi. 

When in conversation with DC, 24-year-old Akash Premkumar talks about his choices — from working for Behindwoods to acting in roles that excite him. Being an upcoming actor in Kollywood, he said that the experience was no different from acting in a full length feature film. “When director Guhan Senniappan told us that he is doing Vella Raja with the national award winning actor Bobby Simha, I felt it was a very good place to commence my journey as an actor. I was told that I will be playing the character called Mohan who is an innocent person with a tinge of humour and emotion. This made me very excited as my real life character is quite similar to that of Mohan and I remember mentioning the same to Guhan sir,” said Akash.

He added, “I went through the scenes and script for preparation and I noticed that Mohan aspires to be an actor but works for Bobby as his right hand in Bawa Lodge for money. While the entire series is about cocaine and gangsters, I realised that my role had decent level of scope for performance and I’m thankful to the director for choosing me for the role. Director Guhan has always appreciated my presence on camera and I felt Vella Raja was the right project for me since the screenplay is non-linear and gripping! That there is no censoring in the entire series is the biggest positive.” 

Akash also plays a role in the upcoming Tamil remake of Arjun Reddy — Varma, as Dhruv Vikram’s best friend. With excitement, he said, “I think I’m gifted to be working under the legendary Bala sir. I did both Vella Raja and Varma around the same time. Now that Vella Raja has released, my next release is Varma. It was special playing Ashok (the best friend of the lead) in Dhruv Vikram brother’s first film. I am a crazy fan of Chiyaan Vikram sir and it is an honour to act alongside his son in his first film as well. The film will be Bala sir’s intense version with the essence of Arjun Reddy kept intact. I’m lucky to be chosen by Bala sir and I think it was an unforgettable experience working under him.” 

Akash is looking forward to Varma’s release slated for February 2019, and is extremely thankful for Vella Raja as well.