11 September 2015
Hyderabad

He came as a fresh breeze in Tollywood. With his rugged look and talent, Satyadev has proved to be a gem that Tollywood can put in its crown. Idlebrain Throws Focus Light on Satyadev who strongly believes that one should dream big to be a star.

My childhood
I was born in Visakhapatnam. My father Prasad Rao worked for Eenadu. He is now working for Hans India as regional manager for advertising. My mother Lakshmi is a housemaker. My younger sister is a doctor.

I spent my entire childhood in and around Seethammadhara. I studied in SFS school. I was quite active during my school days and was very much into extra-curricular activities. I was into stage shows, dance and other art forms and was one among those kids who would grab the prizes and bring them home. I have always aspired to be an actor. I had no idea why. But, just wanted to be one. I never had any formal training in acting but always participated stage shows as a hobby and won many accolades while in school and college. I joined MVGR college in Vizianagaram to pursue BTech in Computers. Even during my engineering, I was totally engrossed in Cultural festivals. After I finished engineering, I took up on a job offer in Bangalore.

My trials in Tollywood
Though I was formally working as software engineer, my heart and soul were in movies. So, before taking up a job in Bangalore, in 2009, I went to Hyderabad. I wanted to try my luck in software and also in movie field. I slowly started doing photoshoots and made couple of portfolios. During my stay in Hyderabad, I got in touch with Rishi Prasad who was Assistant Director for Mr Perfect movie. He was with Dil Raju banner at that time. After making my portfolios and giving couple of auditions, I moved back to Bangalore to take up on a job offer. While I was in Bangalore, Rishi Prasad called me for auditions. I auditioned for a friend’s role in Mr Perfect movie. After auditions, I was called and informed that I needed to go to Australia for the shooting. Since I was working in Bangalore, I had to quit my job and flew to Australia. That’s how my movie career started with a project overseas. After Mr Perfect movie, I was free for some time, so I moved back to Bangalore. Though I was employed in Bangalore, I made it a point to visit Hyderabad during weekends to try my luck in Tollywood. Then I received a call from Sreekanth Addala for the movie Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu. I played a small role in that movie. You can call it a blink and miss role. You would miss me if you went to out to get popcorn! But, I was happy that I could work for a good director and good casting.

A small step
Then again, I was back in Bangalore. It was becoming tough for me to come to Hyderabad every weekend. So, I moved to Hyderabad for good and started to try my luck in movies seriously. During my Sethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu shooting, I shared my room with Vennela Rama Rao . He later produced a film called Maine Pyar Kiya directed by Pradeep Advaitam. I played the second lead who has two roles- one as 25 year young man and one as 40 year old man. This movie gave me a chance to prove myself and I gave my best. Then Sreekanth Addala called me again and gave me a role in Mukunda movie. I was offered a negative role where I had good dialogues to deliver. Then I also worked in Asura wherein I played a Negative character. These movies gave me an opportunity to prove my talent. Meanwhile, I gave many auditions and tried my luck in every possible way.

A Big leap
One day, I received a call from Pradeep Maddali and when I went to give auditions, I saw Charmee. I gave an audition for negative role and they informed me that they will get back. After one week, Pradeep called me saying Puri Jagannath wanted to meet me. I went to meet Puri, who after brief exchanges, asked me to shed some weight. I was almost weighing 90 kgs at that time. I had no choice except to shed weight if I wanted to be in the movie. I assumed they wanted a thin villain and I worked hard to lose those extra kilos. I lost 8 kilos and went back to Puri who again asked me to shed some more weight. This time, I was determined and lost another 8 kgs . I almost Lost 16 kgs in 2 months. When I met Puri, he slowly informed me that I would be playing the lead in his upcoming movie Jyothi Lakshmi. I was speechless. It didn’t sink in for a while and I went back home elated but in a state of shock and surprise.

Jyothi Lakshmi gave me life
My life can be described as pre Jyothilakshmi and post Jyothilakshmi. This movie gave me all kinds of experiences that I needed as an actor.

As an actor, I have a blessing. When I am in front of the camera, I forget everything. Though there were bigwigs like Puri, Charmee, Vinda, I used to focus just on the camera and work my part. Most of my takes were single and Puri helped me a lot in refining my acting skills. But, as an actor, I have many roles to play. The biggest fear came during songs and dance sequences. Though I was a good dancer and performed many a times during school and college, somehow in front of the camera, I just froze. I couldn’t get the cues and was little embarrassed. I must say, Charmee was quite helpful in cheering me up and finally I danced my way through the movie.

Also, though I was comfortable doing negative roles, few scenes which involved intimacy, were not my forte. My mind was blank and it was a big challenge. More than dancing, I was challenged by such scenes. But, I had good crew who helped me pull those scenes. The entire movie was packed up in 36 days. When the movie was first screened, RGV told me that he is very impressed to see me. He thought I would be a minus to the movie. But he said, I proved him wrong. The next day I got some 80 missed calls. When I picked up the call, I was told RGV tweeted about me saying I was the one of the finest actors and he thanked Puri for discovering me. I was shocked. I thought I proved myself. As an actor, this was one of the best compliments I received from the industry.

My two cents for struggling actors
People used to tell me that I need to quit as the success rate is only 1% in movie industry. But here is my advice. People tell us different things. I am a firm believer, where in I believe, just because it happened to someone, doesn’t mean it has to happen to me! I was very confident that I will make it big; because I believed in myself. Acting is not everyone’s cup of tea. People think it is very easy. The actor has to carry everything on his shoulders. For that, one need to do hard work and put in a lot of dedication and more importantly, believe in oneself. If your intention is true, things will definitely happen. Don’t ever listen to people and quit. I would rather be called a loser than a person who never tried. At least- I tried.

I have a long way to go. I Want to do roles which are different, intense mischievous and comical. Am taking baby steps and am here to stay.

My family
My wife Deepika has been with me for a long time and has been my constant support. My parents also totally believed in my abilities and never stopped me from pursuing my career. I also want to thank Puri for giving me this new life that I have always dreamt of. He is a true human and treats me the same way as he treats other legends. That is very unique of him and I am learning it now. He is my guru because the experiences and the journey with him are unexplainable.

By
Swathi Sriram

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