Rakesh Adiga: Hopefully, audience perception about me has changed after the Bigg Boss Kannada 9 stint

Kannada actor and rapper Rakesh Adiga had a certain image prior to participating on the first-ever Bigg Boss Kannada OTT season and the follow up ninth season of the TV show. He was seen as a slacker and junkie, based on rumours about him in industry circles. But now, having spent 140-odd days in the Bigg Boss house, he believes that audience perception about him has changed and that he’s been able to show them what he is truly like.

Rakesh, who was one of the four Bigg Boss Kannada OTT season finalists who headed into the TV show, was declared runner-up last weekend. Since leaving the house, he has been busy doing media interviews about his time on the show. Throughout his stint on Bigg Boss Kannada, Rakesh was seen as a frontrunner to win the title, but was edged out marginally by Roopesh Shetty both times.

Speaking to Vijay Karnataka digital, Rakesh spoke at length about how he hopes that audiences have now better understood him and will no longer judge him based on the rumours that have been swirling around about him, including about him being too easy-going about work and doing drugs. “There was a wrong impression about me that I don’t take my film career seriously and use drugs, among other things. I am hoping that going forward, such rumours will not come up because people now know what Rakesh Adiga is all about. If I had a small circle of, say, 200 people, who knew me, today, that circle has become a lot bigger,” he says.

But will this changed impression also impact the kind of roles he does in films? That, says Rakesh, is unlikely to change. “I have done hero characters and villain roles too. So, since I have done a wide variety of roles, I don’t think my stint on Bigg Boss Kannada will change the kind of characters coming my way,” he reckons.