Kartikeya Gummakonda: I am living my dream, I cannot complain

Kartikeya Gummakonda, making his Tamil debut in the Ajith-starrer ‘Valimai’, on what it took to play an unpredictable antagonist 

When actor Kartikeya Gummakonda discusses his new Tamil film Valimai (dubbed in Telugu by the same name), scheduled to release on February 24, he occasionally slips into Tamil, a language he learnt for the film. “I have noticed that when an actor is unfamiliar with the language of a film, sometimes the performance doesn’t measure up. I did not want that to happen to me. I started learning Tamil from a few of my friends and then on the sets of Valimai,” he says. He gave Tamil dubbing a shot but ultimately the makers decided to go with a dubbing artiste: “It is a rooted character and there were Tamil lines that had to sound like how a native would speak. I dubbed for the Telugu version though.”

He has been fielding questions from the media in Chennai and Hyderabad in the last few days, and if there is any fatigue, he does not show it: “All of us in the team have waited for more than two years to bring the film to the audience,” he says with a beaming smile.

Kartikeya had watched director H Vinoth’s 2017 film Khakhee (Telugu version of Theeran Adhigaram Ondru) and recalls being blown away by the meticulous research and storytelling: “I was a struggling actor. I told my friends that if I get a chance to work with this director, I would agree without listening to the script. I made that statement about two directors — Vikram Kumar and Vinoth — and incidentally, both of them cast me as an antagonist,” he laughs, referring to Vikram Kumar’s Gang Leader.

Kartikeya was intrigued when Vinoth offered him the part of an antagonist. He knew it wouldn’t be a regular masala film: “There are several layers to the character. Gang Leader was straightforward where the guy wanted to be a racer.” 

A fitness enthusiast, Kartikeya upped his training routine for Valimai and would often pump it up on the sets with dumbbells. “I had to look more toned, sport tattoos, hair colour and biker clothes… the physical transformation also helped me understand the psyche of my character.” 

Valimai’s filming schedule faced delays during the pandemic and all through it, Kartikeya had to stay super fit: “No one knew when we would be back on the sets and when I would have to do shirtless scenes. So being extremely fit became my lifestyle.”

He had discussions with Vinoth to understand his character’s motives and enjoyed exploring the darker side: “There are limitations when I act as a hero. Unless the character has grey shades, I cannot explore certain traits. My part in Valimai has a certain unpredictability and that gave me the liberty to try something new.”