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Abimana Aryasatya: Making peace with a painful past
(Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)Actor Abimana Aryasatya is living the dream â he is famous, rich and popular
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(Antara/Muhammad Adimaja) (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
(Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
Actor Abimana Aryasatya is living the dream ' he is famous, rich and popular.
But his road to success was far from smooth. He survived tragedies and, at one point, lost his passion for acting and his interest in the film industry.
'I have always believed that real life experience is the best teacher for an actor,' said the shy star, whose latest film Haji Backpacker ' an enchantingly dark tale about the search for God ' just hit theaters.
'When you have experienced so much in life and look at the experience of others as well, you can always bring those feelings from the past into your characters.'
Born with the name Robertino on Oct. 24, 1982, Abimana never had the chance to know his father. 'My father left. I never knew who or where he was,' he says.
As an only son, Abimana was raised with an iron fist by his mother and the rest of his family. He was often beaten if he refused to do what he was told.
During his early teenage years, he decided that he could no longer take the pressure from his family and decided to run away from home.
'I was being told to go to school and to do everything as I was told. I was always a rebel. Life, for me, is about choices. I just wanted to play guitar every day,' Abimana recalled.
'Since I chose to play guitar instead of going to school, I fled. I lived and slept in the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) complex.'
At IKJ, Abimana befriended many of the institute's students and it was during this period that doors started to open up for him to enter the entertainment world and, eventually, the film industry.
During the private television boom in the late 1990s, a number of Abimana's friends took up jobs in various stations. One of them went into Indosiar and took Abimana with him.
'My friend asked me to help him as a crew member for a television series. There was no need for a formal degree for the job. I never thought about becoming an actor. Then some of my friends also received a project from Indosiar to make a new series of Lupus and eventually they cast me in it,' he said, referring to a character based on a teenage book series written by Hilman Hariwijaya.
His performance in the television series earned him enough recognition to help launch his film career. He then starred in a host of horror-thriller flicks during the golden age of Indonesian horror films in the mid-2000s.
Just as his acting career was starting to kick off, Abimana 'vanished' from the industry in 2006.
Abimana said that at the time, he felt he had had enough of acting and just wanted to get away from the entertainment world.
'Acting has never been the only choice for me. At that time, I felt that there was too much drama and backstage politicking in the entertainment world,' he says.
During the hiatus, he took his wife, Nidya Ayu, to Semarang in Central Java, where he started a culinary business.
'I was selling burgers in Semarang, and then I opened a branch in Yogyakarta as well,' he said.
While living in Semarang, Abimana stayed in contact with the film community in Yogyakarta and, at times, he made short movies with them ' an experience he found 'much more fun' than getting involved in big film productions in Jakarta.
After five years, Abimana began receiving phone calls from Jakarta asking him to accept a part in Catatan Si Boy (Boy's Diary), a 2011 remake of the 1980s teen classic of the same title starring Onky Alexander. The film marked Abimana's comeback to the industry.
'I initially refused the offer but my family persuaded me to give it a shot. They said that I belonged in the film industry. Throughout my life, the industry has given me so much, making me what I am today,' he said.
'So, I said 'fine, I'll give it a shot but I will change my name'. [Director] Joko Anwar, who called me, said it was okay for me to change my name.'
His decision to change his name from Robertino was meant to be a joke but there is a meaning behind his current name.
'Abi means 'father' in Arabic and mana means 'where'. So, my name basically means 'where is my father',' he says.
His second name, Aryasatya, was given by his family and it means 'the knight of the family'. 'It was meant as a joke but the audience took to my new name and it stuck,' he says.
Abimana's family is his rock, a cornerstone for his life.
'I met my wife when I was 19. I was tired and bored with my job and even life itself. I had lost my sense of purpose. When I met my wife, I proposed to her to start a family. I found a new goal in life, which was to successfully raise a family and not to fail like my mother and father,' he said.
Now, the father of four says he has made peace with his mother and the rest of his family. Nevertheless, Abimana has pledged not to let his children experience unpleasant treatment like he received as a young boy.
'Being hit was painful, so I never hit my children. To be told that I was stupid was also not a nice experience and I would never speak like that to my kids,' he says.
'I do put my children in school, but this is for their own sake, to let them get to know other kids and learn how to live in society. And the most important thing is that the communication between me and my children goes both ways, not just one way.'
