The delectable behavior handsome looks and urge to make it very big in cinema are the hall marks of hero in arch light. That is what the yesteryear actors had and they have all entered the pages of history and been a role model today.
Chetan Kumar of ‘Aa Dinagalu’ and ‘Birugaali’ is one such bubbling actor who has all the credentials to enter the pages of history from his hard work and brilliant behavior in the years to come. The brain drain of a youngster Chetan Kumar to Kannada cinema from United States of America is a welcome step because he has the requirement to reach new height. No doubt he is a screen stealer!
He is now in ‘Suryakanthi’ and finished a guest role in Puneeth Rajakumar film ‘Raam’ is a feather in his cap. Chetan Kumar who did B.A. in South Asian Studies with an emphasis on Comparative Theater studies from Yale University in New Haven, CT, USA earned a distinction and before that he studied in Marist High School, Chicago in 1997-2000.
He played a protagonist in a realistic Kannada cinema ‘Aa Dinagalu’ that won accolades like Top Ten Indian Films from The week, Film Fare for best Kannada film, SICA award for best debut direction to director KM Chaitanya and of course best debut award from Udaya TV for Chetan Kumar.
Chetan Kumar acted in two stage plays and gained very good knowledge. With Visthara group it was a monologue based two person play ‘Sethu Madhavana Sallapa’ and a historical play ‘Sooryasthadinda Sooryodhayadhavarige’ that presented the struggles of a royal family and its impotent male ruler.
A choreographer, instructor, stage dancer of bhangra, with hip-hop, actor in English and Kannada plays (before, during, and after college), & performer of classical Indian music on the violin & saxophone and jazz on saxophone Chetan Kumar is a research Student – Documented the dialectics of caste, class, and gender in various village/folk and urban forms of South Indian drama through a self-proposed project on Indian theater and its socio-economic-political influences after receiving grants from Yale South Asian Council and Pierson College, Yale College.
A Grant Recipient too he studied the multiplicities of the Kannada stage, specializing in ways performance and expression can (and have) en-gender(ed), enable (d), and empower(ed). He worked in conjunction with National School of Drama with Suresh Anagalli as advisor.