Overnight successes in cinema are stories of fantasy. Reality is oft a snail's footsteps, invisible but slow. Actor Rishikanth's journey into becoming a leading man in Raja Karuppasamy's Modha Rathiri, has taken the actor 15 years. The actor will next be seen in Karthik Subbaraj's Dorothy, which releases on September 25.

In an exclusive interview with CE, Rishikanth opened up on making it into Tamil cinema. "My outlook on what I watched on screen was that when I was little I beleived cartoons were real and they were shot on location. Later, when I wanted to enter into cinema I learnt that there is a place called Chennai, where film shoots happen. Maybe, if I was from Chennai and I had more connects in this industry, I would have grown sooner. But because I am not from Chennai, it took me 15 years to grow properly," said the actor.

He added, "But I would say, these 15 years were needed. Every year, when I wouldn't get an opportunity, I would concur that I wasn't ready yet, so I would analyse on how to get ready to grow."

Rishikanth went on to say, "Getting into cinema is easy, but sustaining here is difficult. If I choose this as my profession, this is my personal choice. But I shouldn't let my choice affect my family or any loved ones. So to choose this as a profession, I need to be here until I am old, and for that I should learn to sustain."

Rishikanth, who began his career with the online sketch group Temple Monkeys, has been a part of films like Hero (2018), Indian 2 (2024), and Coolie (2025), and the OTT series Mathagam. He leads the cast of Dorothy alongside Keerthy Suresh and Sananth. After having a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, it will open in theatres. Ilaiyaraaja has composed music for Dorothy.