'After I am done with cricket, my first goal is to direct a movie.'
Before cricket became his calling, Varun Chakravarthy dabbled in music, architecture and even movies -- a journey as unpredictable as his mystery spin.
Tamil Nadu's Chakravarthy, 33, has been one of the leading players for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the last few seasons, while he also played a stellar role in India's Champions Trophy triumph earlier this year.
He recounted how he juggled different careers as he pursued his way to fame in his 20s.
'Right after I finished college, I was working in an architectural company for one-and-a-half years as an assistant architect. I started with a salary of Rs 14,000 a month, and when I left it was 18,000.'
'I wanted to be famous and somewhere in my mind, it was put that being famous gets you a lot of respect. But before acting and even before this career path of direction and architecture, there were a few other things also that I did.'
'There was a brief stint of around 8-10 months where I was playing guitar in a church choir. I was very aspirational and wanted to be a guitarist. I am person who gets inspired by anyone and everyone I see.
'One day I saw a concert of A R Rahman and I was very inspired and at the same time Suriya's Vaaranam Aayiram also released so I thought if I start playing the guitar I will get more attention,' Varun told Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube show Kutti Stories With Ash.
'I took up the guitar as I wanted to rekindle my love for music. But soon I came to know that if you want to pursue some art, the love has to come from within.
'If your goal is to please others or get attention from others, it is never going to work out. So I was never able to practice the guitar for more than an hour and was not able to play it for hours and hours. I realised that only after six months of playing the guitar, and then I realised I had to stop that.'
Chakravarthy then turned entrepreneur as he set up an architecture firm, which he had to wind up soon following Cyclone Vardha, which devastated Chennai in 2016, and sought a career move in movies.
'Then I decided to start my own firm in interior design and construction. It went well for one year and I was then doing a project in Mogappair I had put all my savings and investments in the project. Then Cyclone Vardha struck the city, and I had placed all my inventory, machinery, carpentry in the basement which had got flooded so I lost all my investment there.'
'After that I went back to my friends, I was around 24-25 then. I had a few friends who were in the movies and that's when I started seeing a lot of movies and started going with them to the shoots to be behind the camera and observe what is happening. That's when I came to know that they are shooting for a movie Jeeva in my cricket grounds. I went there and my intention was to become the assistant director but that didn't work out. Then one of the ADs (assistant director) came and asked me if I play cricket. I told them I have just played tennis ball cricket.
'So they asked me to act in that movie and I was signed as a junior artist with a salary of Rs 600 per day and that was pretty helpful at that time.'
'Right now my daily allowance as a cricketer is 300 US dollars.'
The shooting went on for 20 days and I liked the entire process of making a movie. Then I started writing a few stories, scripts, but when I started pitching to to a few guys, I realised that I was able to write the emotions well, but I wasn't able to convey them in a screenplay. I directed a few short films which is not available now because I have unlisted. It is better it stays hidden, it is actually very bad. Then again I realized it is not working for me and I have to do something else."
Chakravarthy's cricket career started with tennis ball tournaments where he played as a fast bowler before he gradually climbed up the ranks. Interestingly, he used to make money by obliging the crowd for a six for which he used to get Rs 300.
'Then one day I told my parents I want to be a cricketer, I was 26 then. Those days, on Saturday and Sunday I was playing tennis ball cricket with my friends in a few grounds.
'There were a few tournaments where crowds used to come to watch the match and used to bet. They used to say that 'If you score six off this ball, you will get Rs 300' or 'If you bowl a yorker, you will get Rs 200'. That was the only way where I could earn some money.
'Back then I started as a fast bowler for this team CromBest CC. I played as a fast bowler, I did decently well but in the third or fourth match I got injured. I had some savings from my architecture stint but I needed some regular income.'
'So when I was playing I use to oblige the crowd, if they wanted a six, I would hit a six and earn decent amount of money through that.
' I played for a team owned by Mr Kannan, who then called me for the cricket ball tournament in the fifth division for Magnet CC. I was a fast bowler cum batsman that time. I did decently well and I got selected for CromBest CC and as I said earlier I got injured and had to take a six month break.
'When I rejoined CromBest CC I was not bowling fast then, I switched to spin. I told them I wasn't going to play in the first division, I am going back to the fifth division and bowl mystery spin. I wanted to give it a shot because I was not able to pick many wickets as a fast bowler.
'When I went back to Magnet CC they didn't allow me to bowl spin right away, so the first seven matches I played as a fast bowler and picked up eight wickets.
'Once we were safe from relegation and we had four matches to play. In the eighth match, when I was handed the ball I started bowling mystery spin. The first two balls didn't fall in place but I started bowling well after that and I ended taking up six wickets.
'In the next three games, I picked up an eight-wicket haul, a six-wicket haul and another eight-wicket haul to finish with around 28 wickets in the 2016-17 season.'
Varun still harbours his passion for the big screen and hopes to direct a movie after his cricket career.
'I still have aspirations to direct a movie. After I am done with cricket, my first goal is to direct a movie.'
© 2025