Edeen Bhugeloo: “Listen with your eyes, ears and touch”

He has got acting talent in his veins. Edeen Bhugeloo started his career in TV adverts. Following his acting in a British TV series and a Bollywood movie, the ambitious and hard working actor is currently working on an international movie project.

Sometimes talent does not make it all. You need some willpower and motivation to achieve what you want. This is what happened to our promising actor. Edeen Bhugeloo dared to move out of his comfort zone and at the end it paid off. Since his young age, he always had an interest for drama and cinema but did not get the appropriate support to develop his talent. “When I was a kid, I was always playing outside with my neighbours and my brother. We were playing role games where we would pretend we were teachers or superheroes. I was more interested in being a stuntman, as I was fan of the Power Rangers and action movies.”

Following his secondary level studies, Edeen gave himself one year to meditate on what he wanted to do in the future. “I went to the beach everyday with a towel and some money. After my day at the beach, I would take the bus back home. And every day was a different day with different people and the stories they shared. And at the end of that experience, I realised that I will work, save some money and later do a movie or short movie of my own at least by age 40. So I applied for a job as Tele-marketing,” he says.

An artist emerges

But when and how did his liking for acting emerge? “It happened during my college days. During one of my design classes, I slipped out to go the toilet and I came across a guy taking pictures of some other classmates. When I inquired about what was going on, they told me that it was a casting for an advert. They asked me if I wanted to give it a shot and I agreed. So they took my picture and I gave my most genuine smile with all my teeth out. One week later they called me and I was in.” In fact the casting was for an advert for a nut brand.

Little did Edeen know at that time that the advert will know tremendous success and that it was the debut of his career. As he shares, the experience he had was amazing. “We shot a whole day for less than a minute on the screen. That was the first time I saw Marcio Isnaar who acted as the teacher. I guess that this advert experience accounted for my choice. Motivated, Edeen continued to work as Tele-marketing agent until two years later, in 2007, when his brother told him about a project for the national drama festival. “My brother was at St Mary’s College and he told me that his school was competing for the national drama festival and that they were looking for actors. Again I thought that it was a good opportunity and I accepted. When I did the casting, the people were amazed and told me that I really had something for acting.”

As a reward, the team won the competition. Edeen received the Most Promising Young Actor award. “What consolidated my thoughts even more to go for acting as a career was the bond created during that experience. We all worked together as a team, as one family. No differences, no backgrounds, no religion, nothing, just us humans, us artists,” says Edeen. From there, the artist decided to make his growing passion and his inner talent his job.

Hard work

Edeen confides that the beginnings were hard. “The only way I could make stable money was by doing radio adverts and dubbing. Doing video ads does not happen often as you are already tagged to a brand.” However as he highlights, the harder it was, the more he wanted to achieve and work and the more fulfilling was it all. These past two years, things have changed exponentially for Edeen. He had the opportunity to work on various platforms such as radio adverts, dubbing and also the well-known web series ‘ene boug, ene 35’ and ‘Squatter’ which airs online on Crazy TV.

The local talent has also played in a British TV series called ‘Killing the Cure’ and even in a Bollywood movie directed by Sharvan Anenden called ‘The Comeback’ (post-production). “I've been acting in pilot local series that will maybe come to something. So yes, after hard times things are working great now. And I can pay the bills now. My parents can start enjoying their life,” he confides.

Edeen strongly believes that local institutions should offer more varied courses and training to the youths in acting and movie productions. He says that the demands in the industry went up but the lack of human resources is huge not only in terms of actors but also directors, directors of production, technicians, unit guys, among others. “On a movie set there are around 150 people, each one of them doing a specific job. Students should get the opportunity to join programs and workshops where foreign professional actors could be invited. We should make people learn about the cinema and acting industry starting from a young age at school. Theatre and acting will definitely make kids learn better and live better.”

He also trusts that the government should offer more support to people in the movie industry. “More support would be most welcomed. I have a friend, Jake Francoise, who was accepted at an American Acting School but she still needs to raise funds from sponsors to get the money. I would love to see, in a near future, acting students getting scholarships from the government. I mean at least a 50% funding would be most welcomed.”

Stay focused

Edeen, who draws inspiration from actors such as Gary Oldman, Marlon Brando, Humphrey Bogart, Daniel D Lewis, Meryl Strip, Amir Khan, Rowan Atkinson and Robert De Niro, underlines that acting is not easy at all. He advises youngsters who look forward to an acting career to work hard to achieve their goals. “You need to keep practising to get better, like anything else in life. Nobody is born a master, so a lot of work is needed. Also, nourish your imagination. Read, watch great movies, listen to music, get exposed to life and more importantly, listen. Listen to your parents' stories, grand parents' stories, listen with interest. Listen with your eyes, mouth, ears and touch. Also work on staying focused always. If you can do that, you already having a big part of it.”

Edeen is working on the next season of Squatter and more projects for the Crazy TV show. “There is also an international movie in the pipeline,” states the superstitious actor who prefers not to reveal more.