With only a handful of films behind him, Karthik Mahesh is shifting gears, stepping away from the conventional hero space to play the antagonist in Vijay N’s Alpha, opposite Hemanth Kumar.

Actor Karthik, who first entered homes through television and later found statewide recognition on Bigg Boss Kannada, understands how quickly an image can solidify. “It was director Vijay’s visualisation that I could play the antagonist. When someone sees you beyond what you have already done, that gives you confidence.”

Television gave him reach, but Bigg Boss Kannada gave him identity. “In serials, people saw me as a character. After Bigg Boss, they knew me as Karthik,” he says. The shift expanded his audience and brought expectation. Cinema, he believes, requires patience and proof. “It takes at least a couple of films to establish yourself. You have to keep proving yourself.”

In that context, Alpha marks an important step. At a time when morally complex antagonists dominate mainstream storytelling, Karthik views the role as an opportunity to stretch. “I have played hero roles, but I do not want to limit myself. It is about how convincingly I can justify a character.”

Before committing to the film, he revisited Vijay N’s Gurudev Hoysala, studying how negative shades were introduced and sustained. The measured treatment reassured him that the antagonist would carry depth rather than serve as mere spectacle.

He remains pragmatic about the current appetite for action-driven cinema. “I do not know if violence alone draws audiences, but it is working. That said, Alpha is not just about bloodshed. There is a story driving it.”

For Karthik, repetition in storytelling is inevitable, but interpretation keeps narratives alive. He points to epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, retold across generations yet reshaped by each narrator’s lens. “Stories repeat,” he says. “What changes is the vision behind them.”