Fresh from acting schools!!!

With Tollywood witnessing an influx of fresh faces, the competition has never been this fierce. And the freshers are certainly preparing well to face the challenge. Everybody from a lead actor, to a character artiste is heading to an acting school to perfect his/her acting skills, a trend that was previously alien to the industry.Acting school trainers claim that an increasing number of directors are sending their actors to them for grooming.

“Movies involve big money and directors want actors who are well trained. Earlier acting was about being dramatic, but these days it’s all about subtlety,” says Ramanand who has trained actors for the upcoming film, Josh.

Aruna Bhikshu couldn’t agree more. “Director Gunasekhar will use 50 families in his upcoming film and I was asked to train them. There were people from all age groups. I played music, made them dance and play various characters to shed their inhibitions. Their roles required them to cry in the film. I told them to imagine themselves in the role and surprisingly, more than 10 of them actually cried,” she says.

“Thanks to this trend, debutantes are prepared on their first day of shoot,” says producer Suresh Babu. “With the industry gaining tremendous respect in the past decade, many youngsters are choosing it as a career option. Acting schools train them in basics like acting and camera techniques, costumes, expressions and terminology well in advance, in turn making things easier for the filmmakers,” he adds.

Sushanth who trained along with Chaitanya at a Mumbai acting school says, “I was very shy earlier, but an acting course helped me shed my inhibitions. Not only did we learn various acting techniques, but also learnt our strengths and weaknesses.”

And it’s not just youngsters from a non-film background seeking training. Everybody from Rama Naidu’s grandson, Rana to Chiranjeevi’s son Charan is a product of an acting school. A few of them even go to multiple acting schools to orient themselves with every aspect of filmmaking.Actors claim that they are made to do everything from crawling like a baby to dancing to shed their inhibitions at acting schools.

“An acting course helps us shed our camera-shy nature. We shoot a few scenes which are then edited and shown to us. There is nothing like practical experience,” says actor Sharwanand.
Actors’ academy:

* Sharwanand: Satyanand Film Institute
* Navdeep and Kamal Kamaraju:Ramanand Film Institute
* Nikhil, Iliyana and Ram: Aruna Bhikshu Film Institute
* Naga Chaitanya and Sushanth: Creating Characters, Mumbai
* Ram Charan Teja: London School of Theatre
* Daggubati Rana: Barry John Acting School, Mumbai.