When the tall, light-eyed and menacing Daali appears on screen, it’s hard not to get goosebumps while watching him showcase his wickedness. Having wowed audiences with his villainous portrayal in Suri’s Tagaru, actor Dhananjaya is on a high and deservedly so. The versatile artiste, who is being showered with incessant praise, gets candid with Bengaluru Chronicle in this freewheeling chat…
Ask him how he feels now that his character Daali aka Dolly has garnered a huge following and he answers, “After 10 years of struggle, this has happened.
People have got hold of my phone number and I’ve been getting continuous calls.
“I’m in Mysuru right now and people are chasing me in the car, taking photos with me at signals, and some are even getting drunk and calling me. We wait for something like this to happen and when it does, it feels really nice — I’m enjoying the acclaim right now. People who had put faith in me are treating this as a personal success and celebrating.”
The actor has being bombarded with fan messages, including some crazy ones. “Some people are sending me pictures with beer bottles. I want to tell them to see Daali as a character only, and not to incorporate his behaviour in real life.” As for the ladies, they’re swooning over him and sending him marriage proposals on Instagram! “I didn’t know that a negative character would appeal so much to women,” he laughs, adding, “I got invited to a college fest by some girls and they specifically told me to come dressed as Daali!”
As for working with filmmaker Suri, Dhananjaya is all praise for the main man behind KFI’s latest hit. “Every character he creates, stays with you. He’s a very sensible director who wants to showcase something new.” As for Shivarajkumar, Dhananjaya calls the superstar a good human being with no starry airs. “His friendliness will make you feel comfortable. He is really encouraging and when he visits theatres, he takes me along and talks about me,” reveals the actor.
While he’ll be playing a character with negative traits in his upcoming film with Darshan, Dhananjaya maintains that it’s not a villainous role. Though he isn’t worried about being stereotyped as the bad guy, he admits that he’s quite nervous about his next step. “Now that expectations are higher, I need to live up them. I’m definitely scared, and I hope to get a good director like Suri and a great team, so that my fear reduces,” he says.
Having come this far without any godfather in the film field, what’s his take on nepotism in the industry? “Irrespective of whether you have support or not, you need to be passionate about films. If you have the potential, then you will be successful. A film background will help you reach people initially, but talent matters,” he says.
As for the kind of characters he wants to play, Dhananjaya reveals that he’s open to all genres and roles. “Other industries have made such nice period films, we should make them in Kannada too, considering we have so many noteworthy historical characters and novels here,” he says.
