05 August 2015
Hyderabad

He is Talented, Handsome and everything that Tollywood wants in/as a hero. Naveen Polishetty, was last seen in Life is Beautiful and 1-Nenokkadine movies. This very talented actor made his way into the very famous AIB videos as lead. Idlebrain throws its Focus Light this week on Naveen Polishetty who says he is waiting for the roles with substance and is up to prove his talent in Tollywood.

My school and college days
I was born in Hyderabad. My father was into pharmaceutical business. My mother was employed in a bank. I always wanted to be employed in Reserve Bank of India and that’s what I used to tell everyone while growing up. I studied in an all-boys school and I still have a complaint against my father for putting me there. I missed the fun of being in Co-ed. Imagine, while doing plays, I always got the female roles because I had a good smile and there were no girls in our school. One time, I came back home in the make-up dressed as a girl and everyone was staring at me. That day, I realized how difficult it is for a girl and I can totally empathise with them. However, my affinity towards stage began from school and it never stopped.

I grew up in the middle class family setting where all my cousins were doing IIT and Engineering. But I wanted to be in theater. My father was dead against my idea and made me write IIT and all possible entrance exams. I secured a seat in NIT Bhopal but I wasn’t interested in joining at all. But never realized- those will be golden days of my life. It was like any other engineering college student’s life. I used to befriend toppers for notes and take their help and somehow pass my exams. Rest of the time, we were jamming, writing songs, plays and do all kinds of stuff. It was lot of fun. I always used to look forward for the cultural fest. I was mischievous and chirpy.

Dream of Cinema
After I finished Engineering , I joined a software firm in Pune. During my college days, I was under the impression that I would finish my college and go to Mumbai and Karan Johar will launch me in bollywood. I was totally dreamy. After I went to Mumbai, reality hit me big time and I realized it is impossible to meet Karan Johar. Then the only way to meet or make it into Bollywood is to earn and save money. I joined a Telecom company and moved to England to just save some money. I kept a dead line for myself and did save some money; but, I blew all that money in travel. At that time, the economy was also shrinking and despite of that, I was offered a full time job. While all my friends were losing their jobs, I was here being offered a fulltime position with fancy perks. Had I taken up that job, I would have been settled according to the hypothesis. But I always dreamt of being an actor. I trusted my instinct and quit my job and came back to India and told my parents, I would pursue MBA. After sometime, I did break the news to my parents that I want to be an actor. My parents were adamant that I should go back to England. But I persisted and stayed back. I started working for different theater companies in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. I acted in Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone play where I was one of the three main leads. We teamed up with Chetan and performed the play several times all over India. I have also visited Singapore and Bangkok and performed plays and I acted in several plays.

Entry into Tollywood
I was literally living on backpack going around cities and performing. I used to earn very little money but would spend all on travel and survival. I realized it was not enough for the mouth to hand survival and I needed to do something else. I started doing voice overs and also host shows in shopping malls.

At the same time, I sent my videos for auditioning. I sent them to as many as I could and I received a call for Life is Beautiful movie. I was never nervous when it came to acting. But, I did find difference in theater and cinema. In plays, we are there from start to end. But cinema is totally different. We do different scenes and people around us are working and interacting yet we are expected to deliver our best amidst the chaos. I enjoyed working for Life is beautiful movie as we had lot of fun on the sets. I also acted in 1-Nenokkadine movie with Mahesh Babu. I was in Mumbai and an autowala recognized me asking if I acted in 1 movie. I was quite surprised when he told me that he watched the dubbed version of 1.

How I entered AIB team
My life in Mumbai was and is quite a struggle. I used to joke about those struggles when I heard before. But, now I am wearing those shoes myself. I give voice overs, act in ads and do stage shows for living. Once, there was a stand-up comedy open mics and I thought of just talking about my tragedies. After I performed, people totally enjoyed my comedy. Thus my tragedy turned into comedy and I thought this is a good idea. I won some stand-up comedy open mic shows. One day the AIB, All India Bakchod, team was doing the show and that’s where I met these guys and they asked me to come down to their office. Thus how I got involved with AIB last year. Nobody recognized me before AIB. But now people know me. It is fun to be part of AIB videos. My video- Honest Indian Weddings, where I play the lead is quite popular. Before that I did Shaadi.com ad and people thought I was a good groom. On a lighter note, after AIB’s Honest Indian Weddings, people stopped suggesting matches to me!

My recent video with Irfan Khan, as lead, is a small dream-come-true for me. Sharing screen space with him and acting as his assistant in the video got me good name and fame. Irfan is a very fine actor and I was totally smitten by his talent. I used to observe him process and deliver the dialogues. I enjoy working with AIB. It is lot of fun and they are very talented and funny people and I am glad to be part of the whole team.

I am here to stay
I did get offers from Tollywood. But all those roles meant I would be just seen on the screen. This also means I should take up that role just for money. I would not take up a role until I have something strong to do. I have a new project with Geetha Arts. Tollywood is my home and I am looking forward to team up with good directors and production houses. If I get a chance, I would love to do roles with substance and prove that I am here to stay.

Right now I am hosting a show in Masti music channel. I am working with AIB. I do ads and host events. This, kind of takes up a lot of my time. I am very excited about everyday as I have new assignments to do. I enjoy my work and looking forward for a bright future in acting.

By
Swathi Sriram

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