‘In this short span, I learnt of cinema, and its politics too’

He is the sixth actor from Sarja family, but he has devised his own way of dealing with the movie industry. Dhruva Sarja made his acting debut in 2012 with Addhuri, and then worked on Bahaddhur and now Bharjari. Over the last five years, he has done just three films.  But even his small body of work is impressive.

His forte lies in action and dance, but he wants to experiment with different genres. Therefore he signed up for Bharjari, his second film with director Chethan Kumar after Bahaddhur. Dhruva’s third film however faced many delays, though its teasers and songs released created a lot of hype getting  millions of views.

The actor makes an interesting revelation: “Everyone talks about the delay, but nobody knows that I have worked with 15 producers through these three films and the last producer was from RS Productions, who invested in Bharjari.” In spite of all the hurdles, the film is set to be released on September 15. “This was possible only because director Chethan, the team and I believed in our effort… we were loyal to the subject and that is what took us this far,” he says.

He adds, “I have learnt patience over the last five years. I've learnt to wait. I am answerable to many people, so I cannot share what went on behind the scenes and annoy people.” Bottomline is that his success in movies will be determined by the quality of the film, says the actor. “I had thousands of reasons to walk out, but I stuck with Bharjari because I believed in the story. I don’t want to blame anyone at this point.”

Dhruva says that cinema was always discussed in his house, even before he was born. “I grew up hearing about the difficulties in bringing out a film, I learnt from them,” he says. “There were hurdles in my career too but I did not back out, instead I faced them head-on. Despite the trying circumstances, we as a team were keen on Bharjari, and we are happy to be able to present it to the audience ,” he adds.

He believes feedback and reflection will help improve an actor’s craft and the movie. “When it comes to cinema, I want to be my first critic. As an actor, I can share my thoughts with the director and other technicians and actors, and they can share their ideas on my performance too. It may be time-consuming, but I believe it is good to discuss our differences and opinions and perfect our film, so that the audience get a more satisfying product. It guided the making of Bharjari too,” he says.

“Master of all and Jack of none” is how he describes his character in Bharjari. “How fate plays with the lead character Surya (Sarja’s character in the movie), helping him fulfil his destiny is what the story is about, and all of this is told with elements of entertainment,” he says. “When I was growing up, I wanted to be an IAS officer and, when I was in class 8, I wanted to be a doctor. Then in first PUC, my ambition was to become an engineer… I ended up an actor. Youthful ambitions change at every turn and finally it settles on one thing. The film is on a universal theme, and there is romance and drama in it.”

Dhruva is more than excited about having the voice over of 'Challenging Star' Darshan in his movie. “It is an advantage,” he says.

Kannada cinema is experimenting with varied forms of storytelling, what is his take on that and where does he stand? “My team and I wanted to bring out a film that can be watched by an entire family. Women watch films and even youngsters and children do. I don’t want any of them to be embarrassed watching my film, and not worry about taking their parents along,” he says.

Dhruva admits that he has had a fair share of “fluke success” with his films. “Of course, hard work went into them,” he says, adding that one of the biggest lessons he learnt in the industry was about networking. “I learnt who to work with and who not to,” he says but refuses to name anyone. “There were a few people who simply slept through our difficult journey with Bharjari. Thankfully, we completed the film without being influenced by their negativity. In a short span of time, I learnt not just about cinema, but its politics too.”

With Dhruva in the lead, the film also features Rachita Ram, Hariprriya and Vaishali Deepak. Bharjari has music by V Harikrishna  and cinematography Shreesha Kuduvalli.