Kantara’s Rishab Shetty recalls selling water cans to make ends meet before stardom: ‘For 10 years, I had to survive’

His film Kantara is the second-highest-grossing Kannada film of all time today. The film is running successfully even in the Hindi belt and Rishab Shetty is a household name in most parts of the country all of a sudden. But this ‘overnight success’ has taken almost two decades. In a recent interview, Rishab recalled how he would do odd jobs like selling water cans and working in hotels to make ends meet during his days of struggle. Also read: Rishab Shetty recalls when people sold free tickets of his film to buy booze

Rishab Shetty started his journey in the Kannada film industry in 2004 but did not get his first film as a director till 2014. In fact, his first success only came a couple of years later. Now, with Kirik Party’s critical acclaim and Kantara’s commercial success, he has established himself as a major name in the industry. But the road here wasn’t easy.

In a recent interview with Pinkvilla, Rishab revealed, “Right after the second year degree, I started doing odd jobs as I wouldn’t have money for watching movies and couldn’t ask for money all the time from dad right? Whatever jobs I got, I did all of them. In 2004, I started and in 2014, I got my first direction so in 10 years I had to survive.” Rishab said that some of the jobs he did in that time period included selling water cans, real estate, and hotel work.

All this while, he continued to try his luck in films. Rishab added, “I wanted to be an actor but wasn’t getting any chance in the industry because no contacts and I had no idea about how to approach. So I read a story about a Kannada actor about how he started off as an assistant director, got a few contacts, did some side characters, and then became a hero. Then, I thought this way seems good for people like us. After my education, I did a short-term course on filmmaking, then worked as an assistant director and after 6-7 years, I diverted into acting.”

Rishab’s latest film Kantara has earned over ₹325 crore gross worldwide, making it the second Kannada film after KGF Chapter 2 to cross the 300-crore mark. The film’s dubbed versions have also done pretty well, with the Hindi version alone netting ₹53 crore so far.