Dr Bharat Reddy: Cardiologist as a villain in reel life

2007
Syed Akbar

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5.00 am: An ambulance with sirens blazing makes a screeching halt. It's an emergency and the nursing staff rush a patient to the cardiac intensive care unit. After a few minutes, a young doctor comes out of the CICU with a smile to announce to the anxious relatives outside that there's no danger to life.
3.00 pm: A wicked man abducts a girl and demands ransom. He threatens to kill her if the ransom sought was not paid within 12 hours.
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Young cardiologist Dr AM Bharath Reddy had a say in both the episodes. The incident at 5.00 am in a corporate hospital is real. The messiah was Dr Bharath Reddy. The abduction at 3.00 pm was a nerve-chilling scene out of a Tollywood movie. And the villain was none other than this young doctor, who specialises in a life-saving system of medicine.
Dr Bharath Reddy doubles up as a heart specialist in real life and as a budding villain in the Tollywood. This cardiac physician has acted in half a dozen Telugu films and is currently busy shooting for four more. He is perhaps the only cardiologist in the country to take to film shooting.
This 31-year-old heart physician, who graduated from a noted medical school in Europe, enjoys acting in negative roles and wants to establish himself as the most wicked villain in the Tollywood.
Except for Dubai Seenu, where he donned the role of a good-hearted police inspector, his roles in all the other films were negative. Even in the four films which are under production he has chosen to be a villain. Dr Bharath has taken to film acting not to earn a few bucks more, but to come out of the mental trauma and stress he undergoes in ICUs as a heart specialist.
Says Dr Bharath, "At times, after working for more than 14 hours in cardiac intensive care unit, I feel terribly frustrated seeing deaths and pain of the relatives. I have become immune to these sorrowful things. But I realised I was losing my track. Then I thought of the concept of second life which is practised in Western countries. Since I have had modelled before doing medicine, I switched over to acting in films".
Besides Okavichitram, he has acted in Katharnak, Annavaram, Rakhi, Dubai Seenu and Classmates. He is currently acting in a negative role in Nargarjuna starrer Don. Three other films, he is acting, are yet to be titled. He takes on Ravi Teja and Pavan Kalyan in these under production movies.
Dr Bharath works between 11 and 14 hours in the cardiac unit and adjusts the free time for film shooting. He accumulates his weekly offs as a doctor and utilises the compensatory offs for film shooting. He says he likes acting in negative roles since his school days and that's the reason why has chosen to be a villain in Tollywood.
"Initially I had to struggle a lot to find a place in the already over crowded film industry. But I did not lose hope and continued my efforts to find a place of my own in the Tollywood. My first break came in the form of Okavichitram produced by Dasari Narayana Rao. I have acted in quite some films since then," he points out.
According to him, many doctors in Europe and the US have been concentrating on what they term, a "second life" to drive away the stress and the mental agony of seeing patients suffer. "In fact, my practice has improved after I took to acting. My mind is fresh and I am able to concentrate more on patients. It's high time doctors in India picked up the second life concept to serve patients even better and with more dedication", he says.