29 July 2015
Hyderabad

He created sensation through Youtube and pulled the Telugu crowd towards him. Idlebrain throws its Focus Light on very talented Harish Koyalagundla, an NRI who sabotaged his Dollar dreams to pursue Tollywood dreams by creating a sensation with his comic videos and roles.

My life as a student
I was born in Hyderabad. My father, Dr Narasimhulu is working as Professor of Medicine in Gandhi Hospital. My mother, Venkamma, worked in Education Department as a Director. My younger sister Ashwini is an MBA graduate and is employed. My family is very well educated. I went to Hyderabad Public School where my life changed a lot. I was exposed to sports, arts and cultural activities. I was very shy and introvert during my school days, but was very influenced by the activities around me. After I joined Engineering in Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology, I realized it's time to experiment with my talent. I became more confident and my life changed entirely. I used to play cricket at university level and was into cultural activities. I was very much into skits and small plays where my plays were so popular that they were put at the end of the programs to retain the crowd. Everybody used to ask me to try acting and enter Tollywood. Since my whole family is into education, I was never inclined towards acting and the definite path for me was to pursue a job. 

Life in USA
Though, my engineering life opened up many avenues, I neglected my education. I didn't even get a good score in GRE. But with a small ray of hope, I applied for MS and luckily I also got visa and then moved to the US. As I have always believed, my life is nothing but a sitcom. Every journey of my life is a true bit struggle literally and metamorphically. I wish to share a funny but struggling incident of my life. Imagine, what was supposed to be a day of a travel to USA turned into a 5-day ordeal. I got down in Dubai to take a connecting flight. I was so hungry that, I had some Biryani in the airport and took a small nap before I boarded the flight. When I opened my eyes, I realized, I missed my flight! Thus, I stayed in Dubai airport for 2.5 days. I became good friends with local shopkeepers and retailers in the airport. My itinerary was so messed up that I landed in USA after 3 days. As soon I landed, there was a blackout in the United States and I stayed in the airport and missed my flight to my university. By the time, I reached my university apartment; it was almost 5 days since I left India. So, I have many such stories to tell where I was victim of the circumstances. I met Vennela Kishore in our campus, who was graduating at that time. Though Kishore was there for very less time, we hit it off very well and spent valuable time together. I finished MS in Computer Science. Can you believe I was also a victim of Hurricane Katrina. I was in New Orleans and all my stuff was washed away. Somehow I survived by living in a trailer. Eventually, I moved to New Jersey to work in an IT company. Till then, my life was quite turbulent and I had to struggle a lot. My struggles were funny but very realistic. I take it as an eventful journey. 

After I moved to New Jersey, I met up with Vennela Kishore again and he asked me to join his company in Virginia. I joined him but shortly after that Kishore moved to India to work for movies and I moved to Boston.

Change in life through Youtube.
I had very less friends in Boston and had lot of time. I wanted to reconnect with my arts, so I asked couple of people to come together to make a short film. It never worked out as people had more questions and problems than answers. I was quite frustrated and decided to make it on my own. I wrote a script with 2 characters and shot one character each day by myself. I placed the camera on tripod and shot the videos. I used to do retakes and mark the best shots. I learnt editing by myself and finished editing in a week during night times after dinner. Once I got the video and I was satisfied, I uploaded it on Youtube and slept. The next day, I realized I got 7000 views. It was in 2008 and being an actor on Youtube was rare. I received plenty of messages from people saying they enjoyed the videos. My old friends also got reconnected with me. Thus I made 4 such videos in one month. That's when I came up with Aapara Hindi video. These videos got me lot of fame. When I used to go to restaurants, people used to recognize me. I got 3 movie offers and I came to India, but all the movies got cancelled. At that time, Vennela Kishore was doing Inkosari and showed my videos to the director. And thus I worked for that movie which was my debut in Tollywood. I sent a message to director Jayanth Paranji and showed him my videos. He called me into his office and told me that he liked my videos and wants me to act beside Pawan Kalyan. I couldn’t believe my ears and I wanted to yell and jump in the office when I heard the news. But I maintained my composure and just accepted the offer on the table. Who would say no to work with Pawan Kalyan? And imagine I was a huge fan of his and now I am working with him. I wanted to take a picture with him and tell him that I was a huge fan of his. Though, we talked a lot, I could never tell him what a great fan I was. Teenmar brought me the limelight that I could never imagine.

Paradigm shift from employed to jobless.
I was in a full-time job in USA. My life was settled and I had everything that a man can ask for. But theses videos got me lot of fame and I sabotaged my career in USA and moved to India to work in films. I thought I could rule my career and life in movies with the name I got. But, then I realized it’s a different ball game in the movies. It is very tough to get fame instantly. It’s a pure cycle of character, performance, recognition and fame. I never got paid for many movies until Teenmaar. I lost my job and survived on my savings. Had I worked for little longer and saved more money, I would have been more stable. I always had a chance to go back to the US and resume my career. But I wanted to stay back and give it a shot in the movies. I gave a deadline for myself and tried hard. Then Seethamma vakitlo sirimalle Chettu happened. I got visibility alongside Mahesh Babu in this movie. During my stay in India in the initial days of Tollywood, I met short films director Sujeet. He wanted to make a short film with me and we both liked each other’s work. We worked in short films and we got a good name. Thus Sujeet got an offer to direct Run Raja Run which became a big hit. I was approached by Gunnam Gangaraju to work for Chandamama lo Amrutam. It was a big project for me. I started my life with a camera in the room and landed up in such a big project. Then Srinivas Avasarala made Oohalu gusa gusalaade. I played the role Chinta Gurumurty. I am very thankful to Srinivas Avasarala who beautifully crafted that role that gave me the name I deserved.

Life in Tollywood
I get work, but still am struggling for good roles. The day I get stagnated, I will go back to USA. I am just one month away from pursuing my career in IT. When I hear the stories of others on how they are struggling, I feel I am quite blessed. Many people struggled a lot and for many years. But I am very lucky to have a supportive family and to have fallen in good hands. Though I worked in major projects, somewhere there is a huge vacuum. I am also writing for Jayanth Paranji right now. Hopefully, it will work out and give me a new lease of life as a writer.

The glitch that I don’t want
There is this incident in my life which happened without my knowledge and I still regret for being part of the whole ordeal. I have also worked in Jabardast series where we need to work on skits and enact them. I had two episodes to do. I finished mine and then it was turn of my co-actor who wrote the script and I enacted in it. I hesitated to act in it as it had certain dialogues that didn’t sync well with me. Somehow, I was convinced that it was ok to do such spoofs. After it was screened, fans of Prabhas attacked me saying it hurt their sentiments. Though I apologised, some sections of fans still dislike me. I am always away from any controversies and it still bothers me that it brought me a bump that I never wanted in my career. This is my suggestion to all that by making a mockery of anyone, we will not achieve anything.

But at the same time, I also owe it to Jabardast series as it brought me recognition and took me to all corners. Many people say that I act well in short films but I do an average job in movies. It is because, those short films are made keeping me in mind and are crafted to suit me. But big movies are made up for different characters and I am only trying to fill those gaps. So, it is all pure luck where the directors keep me in mind and create roles. Right now I am working in Sankarabharanam. I admire movie field and I don’t want to leave it or give up yet. I am writing stories too. If not now, some day, I will get the name and fame that I deserve.

By
Swathi Sriram

Other articles in 'Focus Light:
• Eshwar Reddy
• Saandip
• Snigdha
• Anil - Bhanu
• Vijaya Bhaskar
• Vinay Varma
• Dr. Josyabhatla Sarma
• Sasikiran Narayana