Adivi Sesh’s special birthday

The actor looks forward to more pan-Indian films

DIRECTION HAPPENS FROM THE BRAIN AND ACTING HAPPENS FROM THE HEART. WHEN YOU DON’T COME FROM A FILM FAMILY, YOU NEED ALL YOUR ASTRAS FOR THE BATTLE AND MY WEAPON WAS MY WRITING. I CREATED MY OWN SCRIPT AND THAT IS HOW IT STARTED

— SESH ADIVI

‘I have never met her, but I am named Sesh after my grandmother Seshagiri. She passed away before I was born. In the Telugu industry, a lot of people are known by the name of a film they have worked in, and many people tell me they have never seen my film Adivi,” chuckles Adivi Sesh, who celebrates his 36th birthday on Friday.

For a change, Sesh’s parents who are currently in India, and the actor, who has been in this country for several years, is looking forward to spending his special day with them. “Since I’ve been in India, I have had to be satisfied with speaking to my parents over phone on my birthdays,” he says. “The pandemic was on and nothing was happening, but this is something good,” says Sesh.

“It may sound strange, but as part of an orthodox family, we never got to celebrate

Christmas. We did celebrate

Halloween and I used to dress up like a gangster or Spider-Man,” he reminisces.

“I grew up in San Francisco and did my school and college education there. I grew up with Gujarati and

Punjabi friends and they were more comfortable speaking in Hindi than in English. I felt like a fish out of water, and was always trying to find an identity,” says the Goodachari actor.

Sesh, who is looking forward to the release of his film Major (on February 11) and more Pan-India films, says, “I have been emotionally involved in the project as a writer too and it has taken a lot of my time. If anyone, including actors like Prakash Raj, had any doubts, I was the go-to person, as writer.”

He believes he is more of an actor and writer though he has made his directorial debut. “I was always an actor first. Directing my first film made me realise that probably I am not a good director,” he says.