Kannada actor Diganth has a regular cyclist since 2016
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Kannada actor Diganth’s Instagram account features several snapshots of adventure activities. Pictures from his long rides — with friends or his wife and actor Aindrita Ray — reflect his love for cycling.
While meeting us, he gleefully hops onto a cycle for an early morning ride and opens up on his upcoming film Powder, set to release on August 23. Directed by Janardhan Chikkanna (of Gultoo fame), Powder is Diganth’s fourth release of the year after Bachelor Party, Marigold, and The Judgement.
Powder promises to be a comedy caper, with confusion and chaos thrown into the mix; Diganth uses cycling again as a metaphor to explain his current phase in the film industry.
“When you go on long rides on a cycle, you get exhausted climbing steep hills, so much so that you don’t want to cycle again. But once you get past that challenge and hit the smooth road, you feel proud of yourself. Similarly, I have had my dull phase in films.”
Diganth and Dhanya Ramkumar in ‘Powder’.
| Photo Credit:
KRG Connects/YouTube
“However, this year has been very interesting for me. Apart from Powder, I also have Laughing Buddha, Edagaiye Apghatakke Karana, and Uttarakaanda to look forward to. Whenever I hit a road block in films, I always think of this up-and-down reality of cycling and motivate myself to be patient for the best times. Cycling is sort of a spiritual activity to me,” he says.
Powder has an ensemble cast, with Rangayana Raghu, Gopalkrishna Deshpande, Nagabhushan, Sharmiela Mandre, and Dhanya Ramkumar playing prominent roles. “It was excellent working with these actors,” says Diganth. “The director didn’t have to try hard to generate humour. Be it Rangayana Raghu or Nagabhushan, they are very natural at comedy. They would understand the core idea of the scene and enhance it with their brilliant comic timing.”
The trailer for Powder reveals the lead characters running around to possess a container of ‘talcum powder’ (drugs), which is supposedly worth Rs 400 crore. Powder is written by Deepak Venkatesh and jointly produced by KRG Studios and TVF Pictures; the movie is TVF’s first venture into feature films.
“TVF is very popular in the web series space. They are known for their short comedy skits on YouTube as well. We got a lot of inputs on the evolving nature of the comedy genre from TVF,” notes Diganth.
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The actor hopes Powder will spur a series of feel-good comedies in the Kannada film industry, like the golden period in the late 2000s when Diganth featured in several well-made romantic comedies such as Gaalipata, Mansaare, and Pancharangi. Diganth’s boyish looks and fair complexion earned him the name “Doodh Peda” Diganth.
Actor Diganth.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
“Director Yogaraj Bhat thought I am a North Indian when he first met me on the sets of Mungaru Male!” he says, laughing. Diganth played a cameo in the 2006 super-hit romantic drama starring Ganesh and Pooja Gandhi. “Many felt I didn’t look like a Kannadiga. I remember Yogaraj Bhat asking me if I knew how to read Kannada while giving me the film’s script. I laughed and said I am a Thirthahalli boy and a pakka Kannadiga,” recollects Diganth.
However, Diganth has had a stop-start career thanks to injuries and selection of scripts. In a freak accident, the actor’s eye got grievously injured when his co-star Amyra accidentally threw a stiletto while performing a scene during the shoot for the Hindi film Ticket to Hollywood in 2017. The injury-prone actor also suffered a cervical spine injury when he fell off a trampoline while he was on vacation in Goa in 2022. He even shot some portions of Bachelor Party with a torn tendon on his left leg.
“These major injuries have been life-changing. After my eye injury, I couldn’t do anything for two years. My mental health was severely affected as I couldn’t do what I loved: cinema and adventure activities. After I recovered, I decided to be consistent with cycling and other forms of exercise. Since then, fitness has been integral to my life,” he signs off.
