Lakshya Kochhar - Acting Is All About Doing And Not Just Intellectualizing Or Talking (Actor)

 

The biggest challenge is to be ready for an opportunity that comes your way, sometimes in success or failure you get a little swayed away, the task is to stay balanced and absolutely focused to give more than a hundred percent to every opportunity, small or big that comes your way. 

1. Tell us about more about your background and journey.

I’m from Bhopal. I pursued my studies in Bombay and did my post graduation at New York film academy and started working as an assistant director and  immediately after that I worked in a bunch of ads and a movie called Gold, did few shows, short films and now on an amazon original show called Dongri to Dubai. 

2. When did you first decide you wanted to pursue Acting and be in the entertainment business, how did you start ?

I think it’s a very internal choice, it’s a shift from the daily societal settings to more artistic and creatively influenced choices in life.. you need to view things from a different spectrum and be ready to evolve everyday as an artist.. the shift for me happened when I first started assisting on a movie set, I saw things differently and wanted to be on a movie set all my life. 

It’s the biggest thing to create characters out of raw paper.. to conceive and create somebody’s ideas into reality.. it’s exhilarating if you do it right and extremely tiring if the reason for you to do it is corrupt in the first place. It’s a job of a laborer and demands every ounce of your blood, sweat and focus. Not as glossy as it appears.. 

The only victory here is the love for the game, there can’t be any measure for the love and the high you get in front of the camera, so do it only for the love of it or else there’s always stock market to make money. 

3. What's your opinion of OTT platforms enabling so many actors to get entry to the world of entertainment? Was it harder for you ?

It was very different a few years ago, there were just a few good parts which all the actors were eyeing a few years ago.. things have changed for good and luckily I’ve been the generation that has gone through the change first hand.. there are so many more opportunities now, so many amazing creative people coming a float just because of the sheer number of OTT platforms. 

It’s exciting and it keeps you on your toes because you have to up your game after every project.. you have to evolve and get better as the competition is catching up even when you’re asleep. This will only grow from here, I can safely say this is the best time to be a part of this industry! If you’re good, if you have it in you, sooner or later you will get noticed. 

OTT is a great leveler, you will see more ott stars in the times to come and the economics of making and getting a project together is not dependent on a recognized face or “names” anymore, content is the ultimate King now and forever! 

4. What opportunities are available to upcoming actors in the industry, how can someone start before making it big ?

Like I said, starting is in your head first, feel the creative shift, everything else will follow. But the basics are the same as any profession.. educate yourself in acting, read books, attend workshops, do theatre, just get down to ground zero and start working! 

My acting coach always say that acting is all about DOING and not just intellectualizing or talking. So just start doing it, experience and the number of failed auditions will eventually miraculously make you a fine actor one day. 

Be ready for the grind and keep at it, it demands immense amount of consistency and grit, if you lack any then there are a million other professions which give a better return for your invested time and effort but like I said love is what keeps you going! 

5. What are some of the major challenge's that you have faced in the industry and how have you overcome them?

The biggest challenge is to be ready for an opportunity that comes your way, sometimes in success or failure you get a little swayed away.. the task is to stay balanced and absolutely focused to give more than a hundred percent to every opportunity, small or big that comes your way. 

That’s basically all that you can do, if you can’t create opportunities, you need to be ready for them, absolute preparedness and psychological balance is an ongoing journey.. Keep learning and be open to ideas about evolution.. rigidity and pre conceived notions will only result in hate and blaming things that are beyond your control. 

To avoid all of that, just keep bettering yourself everyday, nobody can avoid growth.. growth and consistency shines more than talent also sometimes. So stay on track and stay balanced. 

6. Who is your all time artist and why?

Guru Dutt is my all time favorite artist because of the visionary that he was, I wish I can see cinema the way he did. 

Also if your work is relevant like his for over 5 decades and inspires millions of creatives across board then you’ve done something right. Legend in the true sense of the word. 

7. What is your mantra for success?

Consistency shines brighter than raw talent.

Lakshya Kochhar

(Actor)

Instagram id : @lakshyakochlar

Interviewed by Adit Koul