Aberaam Varma, lead actor of Raahu speaks exclusively to Idlebrain about his debut. Having completed his MBA from USA, he was driven to get back to his roots to follow his passion for acting. Now, having experienced success in modelling (being crowned Mr. Andhra Pradesh 2013), he decided to focus solely on acting and wants to make a name for himself as an actor rather than a hero in Tollywood.

Tell us what lead you to acting.
During Engineering I was offered a role in the Shekhar Kammula film Happy Days my family didn’t agree; they wanted me to finish studying. So I went on to do my MBA in Florida State University, USA. It has a top film school so it was one of the main reasons I opted to go there. I'm fact my minor was in Theatre Arts. The direction students there do student films called MFA films. The one I featured in went to film festivals. Then I came back to India and learnt acting and dance from Devdas Kanakala. Post that I started modelling and was Mr. Andhra Pradesh 2013. I went on to be in the top 10 of the Mr.India competition. After modelling for two years in Bombay and Hyderabad I realised that acting is my true passion. I got a film offer simultaneously so completely moved to Hyderabad for it. Unfortunately after shooting 30% it stopped.

Did that deter you from acting?
No, then I came across a casting call by Teja garu for Hora Hori and bagged an important role. From that I got my role in Manu, the highest and fastest crowd funded movie, as the antagonist. Director Subbu saw my work there and cast me in Raahu. So it's worked out that way.

Tell us about your role in Raahu.
My character in Raahu can be split into two halves. In the first half it's all about love and in the second half I’m revealed as the cop who is in search of his missing love. He also helps the heroine overcome her conversion disorder.

What do you feel is the best part of Raahu?
The screenplay is really good and the character archs are very new. The disorder the heroine has not been dealt with in Telugu cinema earlier so it's quite unique.

Did you identify with your role in the film?I did with bits and pieces but I had to tune myself to get into the character. I had to tone myself physically and mentally for the role.

Tell us about your future projects.
I'm doing Eakam which is a crowd funded film. In it we are exploring a new genre - philosophical fiction. I’m the main lead who is a very self contradictory character. He's kind of a hippy. I also did two webseries, one for Aha called Locked where I’m playing a student alongside SatyaDev. Second is for SonyLiv titled They Call Him Animal. It's a dark comedy.

What do you want to do in your future projects?
I want to be known as an actor rather than a hero. I want to explore different genres with each film so that I can explore myself through the character I play. That way I can grow as an actor and as a human being. I want to make sure that my characters are not at all related to my previous works. I want to transform physically and finetune my mindset for each project so that I can better get into the skin of the character.

Who is your biggest inspiration?
We get influenced by different celebs but the kind of person I am I study the works of others and try to take the best parts of each. There is no one favourite person but there are multiple people I'm inspired by. Among contemporary actors if it's about how to choose my future roles, it would be Dulquer Salman or Ayushman Khurana.

What is acting according to you?
I think actors have to keep learning and unlearning so they can move from one character to the next without showing traits of the previous character in the next. Its a continuous learning and unlearning process so that you can improve your creativity.