Actor Yash KGF fame shares his humble beginnings and career struggles in Bollywood
Actor Yash KGF fame shares his humble beginnings and career struggles in Bollywood
To the extent that rags to riches stories exists, there are plentitude in the film industry. Many glitz and glamour struck strugglers have left homes, armed with nothing but their mere dreams and talent, pinning hope of making it big.
While several of them have faltered, some have failed, but a lot have succeeded too.
One such success story is of the man who once left his home to the ‘Mecca’ of Mumbai’s with mere Rs 300 in his pocket, today charges over Rs 100 crore for a film.
He is none other than the KGF star Yash!
Yash, who once worked as an extra, gave one of India’s highest grossing films.
Born to a middle-class family in a village in Karnataka, Hassan, Yash’s legal name is Naveen. His mother’s family named him Yashwanth, which he eventually shortened to get his stage name later in his career.
The acting bug bit Yash while in his school days. He would often partake in theatre plays and dance competitions as a kid.
At 16, he left home to go to Bangalore to be an assistant director of a project that was eventually cancelled. With just Rs 300 with him, Yash joined a theatre troupe as a backup dancer, where he was paid
Rs 50 per day.
In 2004, at the age of 18, he managed to play lead role in a play for the troupe. Continuing his education side by side, the actor completed his graduation in Arts Stream from Bangalore’s (now Bengaluru) K.L.E. College. In 2005, he played a role in the teleserial Nanda Gokula, where he met his future wife Radhika Pandit.
He went on to appear in TV shows like Male Billu and Preeti Illada Mele. In 2007, he made his film debut with a supporting role in Jambada Hudugi. The following year, he played his first lead role in a film in the flop Rocky.
Yash’s stardom in Karnataka and pan-India began early 2010s, with hits in the Kannada industry, with films like Lucky and Jaanu. But it was after Googly in 2013 that he won recognition among the leading actors in the industry. In 2014, he starred in Mr. and Mrs. Ramachari, which became his first film to gross Rs 50 crore.
In 2018, he appeared in Prasanth Neel’s KGF Chapter 1, an action thriller, which broke all box office records.
Grossing Rs 250 crore, it became the highest-grossing Kannada film ever and even did well in the Hindi circuits. It’s 2022 sequel KGF Chapter 2 was what firmly established Yash as a pan-India star. The film is one of the highest-grossing Indian films ever and it’s Hindi-dubbed version alone left behind several Bollywood films.
The films’ success has turned Yash into a sought-after star nationally. Having been paid
Rs 25 crore per film for KGF, the actor now reportedly hopes to charges Rs 100 crore for a project.
News input KV Raman
