He is one of Kannada cinema’s biggest stars, but Kichcha Sudeep exudes humility that few actors with his fan following would. Having just completed twenty five years in the industry, the 47-year-old is looking forward to the release of Vikrant Rona, the world’s first film that unraveled its logo at Dubai’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa. In a late night chat with us, the actor, filmmaker and television host talks about competition, aversion to tags, and why he thought he wasn’t big enough to have a makeup man for years.

The feeling remains the same, sir, it doesn’t make a difference. 25 glorious years for me is the fact that I survived for 25 years, because this field has got too much competition these days. First of all, your fans show loyalty, they stick to your films, and come to the theatres to watch you even after all these years. That is a blessing. That I managed to be around for these years and maintain a certain positioning... a lot of people’s contribution went into that. I am happy I am still being able to do what I do, just like how I started my first day. I feel the same about films.

Whatever happened was an entire team’s effort. It takes certain money. Even when Dubai wanted to host me for this milestone... I didn’t expect all this to happen in my life, I am just going out and doing my job. The producers of Vikrant Rona wanted to do certain things. When somebody starts believing in your product, it makes you get up earlier and work better. The way people gathered there, irrespective of the Coronavirus situation… there are humongous restrictions in Dubai, not more than seven people can stand anywhere, there’s a penalty. Keeping all that aside, they wanted to stand. It was a precious moment and it belongs to my team.

I am not being modest, but I don’t believe in stardom, I just believe in saleability. That is the valuation every actor has. We are not valued by the number of fans we have, but the collections we get at the box office. We all have a fan following, what makes you what you are is the revenue your film gets. That’s the positioning I am talking about. So far, I am still being able to do certain things, have people investing in them, have writers wake up in the morning and write for me. That is a blessing which I am still enjoying.

He was temporary back then when he started. I didn’t have a makeup person for years, I hadn’t probably grown to a position where I could say I want a personal makeup man! The day I saw he doesn’t have too much work, in the later years, I called him and asked if he would like to stay with me. I had this emotion too that this person had put the first ever makeup on me. He’s a very good guy, a gentleman to have around.