Struggle makes you stronger: Aanand Bhairav

Aanand Bhairav speaks with the innocence of a child. Like most budding talents, he too has a struggling past — days when he ran out of money and was rejected during auditions. But he doesn’t hide that. Instead, he proudly says those days instilled in him the courage to work hard. Now, he has acted as one among the five male leads in the recent movie Team 5 and has three other projects in the pipeline. An engineering graduate, Aanand’s story is like this. “I was born and brought up in Idukki,” he begins the conversation. “Modeling and cinema have been my passions since childhood. But I was afraid to pursue that or talk about that to my friends and family. In a high range area like ours, cinema wouldn’t be anyone’s priority. For them, it was all about studying hard and getting a secure job. Also, I had no contacts in the industry,” adds Aanand.

Aanand got to ignite his passion when he moved to Thiruvananthapuram for engineering studies. The situation hadn’t changed much but he could meet more people and go for auditions. “There was a financial crunch. I put aside small amounts of my pocket money to travel for auditions. I may have attended close to 80 auditions, but failed. The only advantage was that I could make a lot of contacts, which helped me in my journey,” says Aanand. After graduation, he ventured into modelling and did a few advertisements and short films. But, the profession couldn’t fetch him a stable income. He was compelled to fly to Dubai in search of greener pastures. But the financial depression came during that time, thwarting his dreams. Aanand was back to his track. He continued his stride and got into Team 5 unexpectedly.

“The director called me to get a contact of someone who does bike stunts. I expressed my desire to act in movies and he told me to send photos. Some days later, he said he got riders and it doused my expectations. To my surprise, he offered me a role later, that too of one of the lead characters,” says Aanand, who had a great time with the team. Now, two of his Malayalam movies — Trikona and Oru Thekkan Kaavyam — are on the anvil. A Tamil Movie — Siva Sathi has just been wrapped up. “In Siva Sathi, I play a villain, who is a Malayali. The preview of the movie has just got over,” says Aanand. His family was present for the preview. Aanand is happy that he could prove his mettle. “They knew my passion but were not in a position to support me completely. Now, my brother got employed and things have changed. I can concentrate on cinema,” says Aanand, who currently lives in Kochi.