Sporting a beard in Sa got J Karthik a lot of offers

There was a time when people thought of J Karthik as 'that guy from the Celebrity Cricket Tournament', considering that he was often one of the Sandalwood team's star players. But then he got busy with a string of films and hit the popularity jackpot when he signed on as the lead of the Kannada TV series, Ashwini Nakshatra. In the time since, the actor, popularly known as JK, has moved on to bigger things ' playing Ravan on Siya Ke Ram, while also balancing films in Kannada and Tamil.Ahead of the release of his next Kannada movie, Sa, JK speaks to us about working for TV, Sa and the road ahead.
Working on Sa
I play an ornithologist in Sa. When Hemanth Hedge, the director, who is also acting in the film, approached me with the role, I thought that the character needed to look rough and tough, maybe even a tad untidy, as ornithologists spend a lot of time out in the wild in their search for different species of birds. Sporting a beard seemed like a good idea at that point and once I grew it and pictures of me from the film were circulated, I got offers for which I was expected to maintain it, including Arun Vaidyanathan's upcoming Kannada-Tamil bilingual Vismaya/Nibunan and Siya Ke Ram.
Technically, my role in Sa is only a special appearance, but one that is very pivotal to the story. The film is a thriller revolving around the leads ' Hemanth, Vijay Suriya, Samyukta Hornad, Anuradha Mukherjee and me. At its core, it is a whodunit murder mystery and audiences will not be able to guess who has committed the murders and why at any given point.

The television stint
My stints on television, both in Kannada and Hindi, have been highly enriching, especially with the latter. I spent the last eight months shooting for Siya Ke Ram (as Ravan) in Hyderabad, which was far more than the original number of dates that we had agreed upon. I am told that the TRP of the series increased when the Lanka portions were being shown. Interestingly, Siya Ke Ram happened at a time when I thought that I would not do anymore television and wanted to concentrate on films. But now that I have finished my portions for it, I can say that it has definitely opened new doors for me. I am excited about the future.
The road ahead
Despite having been a part of two successful TV series', I don't think I will revisit that medium at the moment. It is next to impossible to balance careers in films and TV at the same time. Moreover, no matter how many films you do, people tend to associate you with a certain character you have done on TV and it becomes difficult for you to break out of that mould. I don't want that to happen and am looking at doing more films.