Kantara Star Rishab Shetty On His Struggling Days: 'Used To Sell Water Cans'

Kantara director and actor Rishab Shetty recently shared how he accepted casual jobs such as the sale of water cans in his early days in the film industry when he had difficulty making ends meet. His film Kantara is today the second most successful Kannada film of all time. The film is even successful in the Hindi belt, and Rishab Shetty is suddenly a well-known name in most parts of the country. But this “success overnight” has lasted almost two decades.

In an interview, Rishab Shetty recalled how in his struggling days he took on casual jobs such as selling water cannisters and working in hotels to make ends meet. He began his journey in the Kannada film industry in 2004 but only got his first film as a director in 2014. His first success came only a few years later. After the praise from the critics for the 2016 film Kirik Party and the commercial success of Kantara, he has established himself as a fixed name in the industry.

Rishab revealed, “Immediately after my second year of study, I started taking casual jobs because I had no money to watch movies and couldn’t constantly ask my father for money, could I? I did all the jobs I got. I started in 2004 and in 2014 I got my first direction, so I had to make ends meet in the 10 years I had to survive.”

Rishab said that during this time he sold watering cans, worked in the real estate sector and worked in hotels, among other things. Meanwhile, he continued to try his luck with the film. Rishab added, “I wanted to become an actor, but didn’t get a chance in the industry because I had no contacts and no idea how to approach it. So I read the story of a Kannada actor who started as an assistant director, made a few contacts, played a few supporting roles and then became a hero. Then I thought this way seems to be good for people like us. After my training, I took a short course on filmmaking, then worked as an assistant director and after 6-7 years I switched to acting.”

Rishab’s latest film Kantara collected over Rs 325 crore worldwide and is thus the second Kannada film to have exceeded the Rs 300 crore mark after KGF Chapter 2. The dubbed versions of the film also did pretty well with the Hindi version alone minting Rs 53 crore at the box office.