In a career spanning fifty years, Anant Nag has acted in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Marathi films, winning several awards including the Karnataka state award.
His on-screen career also includes a stint on TV in 1986 with Malgudi Days, based on RK Swami’s short stories, which was directed by his brother Shankar Nag. Over a multitude of roles, Nag has established himself as a versatile and natural actor.
In March 22, the Kannada film which releases across UAE cinemas on October 5, he plays a geologist who is brought to the village to check on the availability of groundwater. Actress Geetha plays Nag’s on-screen wife.
Nag says that for every role he relies on the vision of the director and then follows it up with his homework. Ramakrishnan, with whom he has worked in around eight films, briefed him on the technical aspects of a geologist’s work.
“We are contemporaries and I have played both positive and negative roles in his films.”
Nag’s fifty-year-long career includes five years of stage acting and 45 years in cinema. His first stage play was in 1967 when he performed the role of Lord Chaitanya.
“It was a musical and I was an amateur actor aspiring to be a professional performer.”
After debuting in Kannada cinema with Sankalpa in 1973, director Shyam Benegal introduced Nag to Hindi cinema with Ankur. Nag soon became a regular in many of Benegal’s films.
Realistic acting, concentrated and focused performance that was backed by clarity of thought and intensity were some of the lessons learnt on Benegal’s sets, he shares.
Despite technological growth today, Nag feels that an actor’s place, be it on stage, cinema or television, remains a constant.
“The latest in technology has nothing to offer to an actor, whose performance is based on intensity, instinct and intuitiveness,” adds the 69-year-old whose passion for acting remains undiminished.
The actor will be seen in four Kannada films next year — a comedy, acrime thriller, a story about a tech-savvy woman and a family entertainer.
Nag is reportedly in the UAE for the filming of Kannada film, Hottegaagi Genu Battegaagi.
