Being persistent is paying off for Bunny Abhirram
The recently released film sees the actor play one of the main characters which is central to the plot.
Hyderabad: There is nothing extraordinary about a software employee aspiring to become an actor. But what is remarkable is quitting a comfortable, full-time job and persevering for years for a good role to come his way.
And this perseverance is what took Bunny Abhirram from insignificant background roles to a full-length character in ‘Pareshan’. The recently released film sees the actor play one of the main characters which is central to the plot.
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While his passion towards acting – which began in his childhood –pushed him to look for opportunities in films, his persistence and determination made Bunny relinquish a government job at Singareni Collieries, offered to him post his father’s retirement, in favour of his younger brother.
Many portfolio shoots and unsuccessful attempts later, Bunny decided on a different approach. He would choose a situation, enact it and record it; he used the videos while visiting production house / casting agency to showcase his acting chops. During one such attempt, he got a small role in a film by Kala Media, which won an award. It got him a role in ‘Kirrak Party’ as a comedy villain in an extended cameo lasting about 25 minutes.
Then came ‘George Reddy’, ‘Thimmarusu’ and ‘Madha’, followed by ‘Pareshan’. The director of ‘Kirrak Party’, Sharan Koppisetty, signed him on for ‘Thimmarusu’. “The credit for me getting a full-length role on the big screen goes entirely to Sharan. He gave me good characters in both his films, which paved the way to other films,” shares Bunny.
In the pipeline is ‘Ramanna Youth’, wherein he plays a careless guy. “Like ‘Pareshan’, my upcoming film is also set in a rural background and has three main characters, including mine,” he says. Besides this, he did a solo hero role for an anthology film – “a heart-touching dark comedy”. The details of the OTT platform are yet to be finalised.
When he’s not shooting, Bunny loves travelling, trekking amid nature, and watching movies of all kinds, genres and languages. “As I don’t come from a theatre background, I learn the nuances of acting by watching films and observing people, their body language, and way of talking, etc.,” says the actor, who loved the films ‘2018’ (Malayalam) and ‘Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana’ (Kannada) in the recent past.
Attributing his success to his friends Pavan Kumar (DoP for ‘Ustaad’) and music director Kamran, the actor says, “They are almost like mentors to me. By a stroke of luck I met them and it helped me immensely in my journey so far.”
Sharing how Kamal Haasan inspires him a lot, he says, “There’s a beauty in his acting and naturalness in his mannerisms, which made him reach that stature.”
Bunny wishes to do an intense negative role like that of Nawazuddin’s character in ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, “I came to the film field to become a character artiste, and I derive inspiration from actors such as Rao Ramesh, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Nawazuddin Siddiqui Naseeruddin Shan, Irffan Khan, Rajkummar Rao and Vicky Kaushal,” he concludes.