Suhas on a roll

Suhas has proved himself to be a cut apart from the rest by featuring in not one or two but three films so far this year. He was first seen in Ambajipeta Marriage Band, which was then followed by Sri Ranga Neethulu and Prasanna Vadanam. With the exception of Sri Ranga Neethulu, which was an anthology, the actor featured in lead roles in both Ambajipeta Marriage Band and Prasanna Vadanam. Though these films were not successful in the box-office, Suhas as an actor proved to be an enduring, resilient presence in the first half of 2024.

And that is not the end of Suhas’ run. A cursory glance at the actor’s upcoming films that he is slated to appear next in Cable Reddy, Anandrao Adventures and Gorre Puranam. Not so long ago, Prime Video had also announced that Suhas will be featuring opposite Keerthy Suresh in the streaming giant’s original feature film Uppu Kappurambu.

This announcement was met with some unsavoury trolling on one side, where people remarked that Keerthy Suresh should have been cast opposite someone “bigger”, while on the other hand, there was some appreciation on how Suhas is bagging diverse and interesting roles. And now, most recently, Dil Raju Productions has announced that Suhas will be headlining their film Janaka Aithe Ganaka.

A prolific line-up in a single year is rare for any actor these days, who mostly appear in one or two films a year. Even acting in one or two films a year is proving to be rare for tier-1 actors who are seeing a release once every two or three years. And yet, we have Suhas, who is appearing in multiple films. How is he managing to do that?

Firstly, Suhas started his career in cinema playing character roles, which automatically meant multiple releases annually. After making his debut in 2018 in Padi Padi Leche Manasu, where he played the role of Sharwanand’s friend, the actor appeared in four films in 2019, two films in 2020 and five films in 2021.

Though Suhas made his debut as a lead actor in 2020 with Sandeep Raj’s Colour Photo, Suhas had to wait for three more years to star in Writer Padmabhushan, his next film as a lead actor. Cut to present day, Suhas is seen in multiple films for sure, but most of these films feature the actor in a lead role.

With the exception of Gorre Puranam where the actor will reportedly feature in an extended cameo and Uppu Kappurambu, where Keerthy Suresh is likely to have a bigger role, all other upcoming films of Suhas feature him as a lead. Needless to say, the fate of these films’ box office rests on Suhas.

In an era where many actors would rather prefer to wait for a good script than go out and do back-to-back films, which actually used to be the norm for heroes in the last century, it is interesting to see Suhas have so many films in his line-up. His background in short films and chai bisket is helping him immensely as many of his current directors are people he has collaborated with in those days. Suhas is also not shy to take on smaller roles or cameos, though he may not appear in smaller roles in the future provided he becomes more successful with time. It looks like he is already on that path for sure.

Suhas recently called Vijay Sethupathi as his idol during a promotional interview for Maharaja and it looks like the former’s career is resembling the latter’s in so many ways. Both actors have come from a short films background, both actors have proved detractors wrong by making it big with their unconventional non-hero looks and dark complexion and most importantly, both actors had a portfolio of varied films which saw them play protagonist, antagonist, supporting character and cameos.

Though it would be a stretch to place Vijay Sethupathi and Suhas on the same pedestal, the example of Vijay Sethupathi’s success is precedent enough for Suhas to build his brand of performance-oriented stardom. This would be certainly refreshing in TFI, where most actors, nepo or otherwise, opt for a brand of stardom that rests largely on heroism. Vijay Deverakonda, for example, could have opted the path of performance-oriented, author backed stardom after Yevade…, Pellichoopulu and Arjun Reddy, but he took the path of heroic stardom instead. Atleast for now, Suhas seems to picking films with strong stories.

Despite Suhas’ impressive journey so far, it is really important for him to succeed with his films in the future. Kiran Abbavaram not so long ago enjoyed a prolific run, with three releases in 2022 and three more in 2023. With most of these films flopping, the actor had to take a break to recalibrate his choices. Let’s hope nothing keeps Suhas apart from working in multiple films.