I want to work with filmmakers who want to tell great stories

Ayana, the Kannada film that releases this week, introduces a bunch of stage artistes to Sandalwood, one among them being Deepak Subramanya, a theatre artiste who plays the protagonist, Aditya.
From doing plays in school and college, to pursuing amateur theatre while also doing a full-time job, to finally giving up that job to focus only on his passion, Deepak has come a long way.Days ahead of his debut as lead hero, he tells Bangalore Times about his love for theatre, movies and the road ahead.
Theatre pursuits
I hail from a small town near Hassan called Basavapatna. My father moved to Bengaluru when he got a government job, so I grew up here. We belong to a community called Sankethis, and the first time I took to the stage was in Class 4 or 5 for a community-level function that happens year-on-year for a play called Mantrata Gulige. As a child, it was fascinating when people applauded what I did; I did plays till Class 10. That is when I started realizing that perhaps that is something that I would like to do. But there was no definitive motive towards being an actor, especially since my family was orthodox and believed that academics is a priority. By the time I began my engineering course, I had no idea what to do in life. In the second year, though, I took up amateur theatre seriously and would be at rehearsals every day after college. I started working with a troupe called Antaranga and did several plays with them. When I began working, the theatre journey continued, but I was not really satisfied with my creative path at that point. It almost seemed like there was no way forward. I would see people who had worked in theatre circles in the same way for three decades, but were not working on their craft, specifically.
That’s when I thought that I should maybe join other troupes and understand my craft better and open up my mind to what that means. I met Abhishek Majumdar, who drastically changed my entire thinking about theatre, because until then it was a very one-off thing for me. I got into very educative processes for a play called Dweepa, during which I got an inkling of what the process is and how has an actor you have to work towards the script. From then on, it has been absolutely fantastic for me, because I got to work with some great directors.

The switch to cinema
The moment you are an actor in theatre, there is a societal implication that you are not earning well, because theatre doesn’t pay all that well. Two years ago, I decided to take up theatre full time, which was a big moment for me. Films first happened to me because of my financial constraints. I was at a place at which I wanted to pursue my craft, having finally understood the beauty of it. I couldn’t do another full-time job and continue theatre, but I was also in a bad state with my finances. So, I thought, why not dabble in movies if that is going to give me monetary support? A lot of offers did come my way, especially for TV, but I really did not feel great about working with them because most of the people are not passionate about their projects. I waited my time out, and my first film turned out to be a small but brilliant collaboration with Adarsh Eshwarappa for Shuddhi.
After that, I was all set to move to Mumbai to be a part of a bigger theatre group, when I came in to the auditions for Ayana with a friend who was looking for a part in it. During the audition, though, Gangadhar asked me if I would be interested in joining them and I gave it a thought. And now, almost a year-and-a-half later, we are ready to release the film.
Becoming Aditya
As far as the role of Aditya is concerned, what happens to most actors is that when the role is not very similar to you, it does take time for you to nestle down into that character. For me, it was very interesting to work on the character, because he is diametrically opposite to what I am in real life.
Aditya is quite reserved, more so he has this ability to construe things in his head before taking a decision and moving forward. Over the course of story time, he goes through quite a journey, and in being the protagonist, being able to honestly deliver that is the most important thing. For that, I have worked in particular to make sure that the physicality and voice and the character moves synonymously with the story. Though these are smaller details that audiences may, at first, not notice, as an actor, I think it is important to do that much of research into the character. Hopefully, audiences will see what I have done and maybe that will be interesting to them.
The road ahead
I have my theatre goals very clearly set, but I also want to do films with people who want to tell great stories. If that means that I have to go through lean periods, I think I am OK with that. At the end of the day, I have made this choice and I want to stand by it. Theatre offers me that bit of creative spur, which films haven’t yet because I have not done many. Ayana was a great film and one such chance, but I don’t know how many more of them are going to come my way. But if it does, I know I am prepared for it.