Yash , the actor who brought Kannada cinema to the global arena, is easily the most easygoing down to earth humble superstar I have known . Others of his ilk pretend to be all of this. But Yash is actually that rarity.
He warns me not to take his humility, etc too seriously. “Sir, I am not all that good. It’s all to do with the vibes I get from you. If you had given me negative vibes I would give you some of the same, or maybe we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Which brings me to the salient problem between Yash and I: almost all our conversations are off the record. After a good forty-five minutes of chatting he asks, “Sir, you are not writing any of this, are you?”
There is only one answer to this. His reasoning is simple: since he doesn’t conduct any interviews with the local Kannada media they get very upset with him for allowing the Hindi-North access into his thoughts.
When one is Yash, one has to tread on glass constantly. Birthday celebrations are strictly a no-no for Yash. And with good reason: some years ago a fan immolated himself in front of Yash’s home when he failed to show up for his annual birthday fan-darshan.
Since then Yash avoids all celebrations to preempt any mishap.
About bringing Kannada cinema to the global level with KGF, Yash refuses take the credit . “No industry is small. It is the people who work in it that make it big or small. We of the KGF team thought big, and why should we not have ? I always knew a KGF was possible. We wanted to prove that we had the potential and resources. We had a terrific story idea, and I was lucky to get a fantastic director Prashanth Neel and a producer Vijay Kiragandur who is like my brother.The entire team has worked really hard to make KGF special. I can’t alone take the credit.”
