Sipu Jha
“Why should one dream within limits? The sky is my limit!” When Rocky Bhai thundered these words in ‘KGF,’ the audience leapt to their feet. But for the man delivering them—Yash—it was somewhat of a personal moment. Those words resonated more with him than with the audience. The kind of line that, if he ever sat down to write his autobiography, would belong not in the middle but on the very first page. How else would you make sense of the incredible journey of a small-town boy becoming the biggest star in India? To say that he defied all the odds would be an understatement. Just like Rocky would, Yash looked every obstacle in the eye, one by one, and dismantled them, sans the violence.Imagine being 16 and serving tea just to keep pursuing cinema dreams. He ventured into television at a time when the space was considered a graveyard for anyone who aspired to be a movie star. But he walked straight in. And to those who mumbled that a bus driver’s son cannot have big dreams, he let his actions speak loudly, by becoming not just any actor, but India’s biggest.
One can draw parallels between Rocky Bhai and Yash because both men have one thing in common—they refused to be contained by the world’s expectations.
Meet Naveen Kumar Gowda, a small-town boy with big dreams
Born Naveen Kumar Gowda in Boovanahalli, a small town in Karnataka, he found himself drawn to the arts for as long as he could remember. At just three years old, he dressed as a cop for a fancy-dress competition at school and screamed, “If you let me go in the jungle, I will capture Veerappan and bring him back in two days.” The crowd burst into applause, unable to comprehend how a preschooler could deliver lines with such conviction.In no time, he became the ‘hero’ of the kindergarten in Mysuru. He didn’t seek popularity, but it followed him everywhere he went. “At a very young age, I got used to all the appreciation, and I liked it,” Yash earlier told Forbes India. The ‘hero’ title got etched in his heart so deeply that he wanted to pursue it ever since.
Yash left home at 16 to pursue his cinema dreams with Rs 300
Dreaming of becoming a hero from a middle-class family that survived on the father’s earnings as a bus driver was rather impossible. He wasn’t deprived of anything during childhood, but cinema was still a pipe dream. But when dreams refuse to leave, one has to push the limits. After failing to convince his parents after Class 10, he completed two more years in school, but this time, he was determined. He fought with them and said he wanted to go to Bangalore to pursue cinema. His parents had their response prepared. “You can go now, but if you come back, we will not let you pursue acting,” they said, worried about his future. Yash took the leap of faith and boarded the bus with just Rs 300 in his wallet.
Yash served chai and handled all the odd jobs
The year was 2003, and he hadn’t become Yash yet. Cinema dreams led him to his first stint as an assistant director. But it was an unpaid job. “Because it was a film shoot, I knew they would provide food and a room. I was content with that,” he recalled. But two days later, the film was stalled.With no hope ahead, the 16-year-old packed his bag, but at the bus station, he encountered something that would soon change the trajectory of his journey. He heard struggling actors talking about failed auditions and yet wanting to try again. He told himself, you only live once, and it has to be to the fullest. Survival was important, so he found himself as a backstage worker for a theatre group. He would serve tea and do odd jobs, for which he was paid Rs 50 a day. He always wanted to act, and when the group left for Mumbai, some actors were away during rehearsals, and he tried his luck. But he was met with rejection. “You are not an actor. You can learn a lot by watching, so watch for now,” they told him. But he was determined and finally managed to become a backup when they were short on actors. In 2004, he finally landed a lead role in the play ‘Gokul Nilkamala’.
Yash on seizing every opportunity, including television gigs
The same year, he was offered a tele-serial, which he grabbed happily. He made his debut with ‘Nanda Gokula’ and also met his now-wife, Radhika Pandit. This was a time when many believed television actors wouldn’t make it big, especially if the aim was cinema. But Yash wasn’t ready to give up on his dreams. He was earning a decent living and also learning new things. He asked his parents to join him, and they did. In 2008, Radhika Pandit, who was his close friend, got a movie offer. “The very next day, I got a call for a role in the same film. Assuming it was a prank call, I never went to meet the team. They called me again, asking me to come see them. As luck would have it, I replaced an actor for [what became] my debut film,” Yash recalled. Both won awards, which led to more opportunities.Yash worked on his art and craft over the years. By the mid-2010s, he emerged as a star. The industry began to notice his potential, and in 2018, he finally landed Prashanth Neel’s ‘KGF’. Today, the world is gushing about how big a star Yash has become. The Rocking Star! One of India’s biggest pop icons of the time. But the success is only the tip of the iceberg. Beneath it lies the least glamorous part: years of hard work, choosing discipline even when no one’s watching, and patting himself on the back when no one else would. Through every phase of his life, from boarding the bus to Bangalore with Rs 300 to serving chai, television years, the slow climb, and the explosion, one thing never changed. Yash refused to be boxed. He refused to be contained by his background, languages, geography, or the industry’s expectations of how a star should be. And if, if at all, Yash would write his autobiography, it would start and end with these lines: ‘The sky is my limit. It always was.’On the professional front, Yash will be next seen in ‘Toxic’.
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