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span class="inline inline-left">Chicco Jerikho: -Kapanlagi.comHaving failed to get cast as the lead in several projects, Chicco got a break from Angga Dwimas Sasongko, the director of Cahaya Dari Timur: Beta Maluku (Light From The East: I'€™m Maluku).

The 31-year-old did not waste the opportunity, giving his best on screen. The result: Chicco won Citra Award for Best Actor at the 2014 Indonesian Film Festival (FFI).

'€œI'€™m beyond happy, because
this is my first film and I never thought I would win,'€ he told The Jakarta Post during the FFI'€™s closing party in Kemang, South Jakarta, recently.

The jury selected Chicco from a field that included Abimana Aryasatya for Haji Backpacker, Ario Bayu for Soekarno, Herjunot Ali for Tenggelamnya Kapal Van Der Wijck (The Sinking of the Van Der Wijck) and Vino G. Bastian for 3 Nafas Likas, (The Three Breaths of Likas).

In the semi-biographical Cahaya Dari Timur, which was set around the conflicts between Muslims and the Christians in Maluku in 2000, Chicco portrayed Sani, a former soccer player who works as an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver in the morning and a soccer coach for local kids in 2000 to prevent them from getting involved in the violence

He went to Maluku and spent 10 days in Tulehu to learn how to speak like local residents.

'€œDialect is not something you can memorize, but it appears from habit. So I decided to stay in Sani'€™s house, taking his ojek around and mingle with the locals,'€ Chicco said.

Chicco said he was not a soccer fan, so he had to allocate a lot of time too to learn about the game for the film. He also had to give up his diet and stop exercising to gain 13 kilograms in four months to get Sani'€™s posture.

Eager to get out of the boredom of working in local soap operas (sinetron), Chicco accepted all challenges.'€œI just finished my last sinetron before I started shooting Cahaya, and it felt so good to have more time to be involved in the process and to explore your role,'€ he said.

Jakarta-born Chicco has been a movie lover since he was little, thanks to his Thai father, who often took him to cinemas.

The actor started his career in showbiz in 2000 when he participated in a photo model contest in a local teenage magazine, which led to offers to star in television commercials and soap operas.

Chicco, best known for his role in the sinetron Cinta Bunga (Flower of Love), had minor roles in the 2007 schlock horror film Lawang Sewu and in Rudi Soedjarwo'€™s 2008 In the Name Love.

Until Cahaya, Chicco did not appear in another movie. '€œI actually always wanted to act in a movie, but I could never find the time.'€

Determined to pursue his dream of acting on the big screen, Chicco took a break from television in 2011 and immersed himself in other activities, including appearing the musical Lutung Kasarung, directed by his acting coach, veteran actor Didi Petet; and participating in poetry-reading events.

'€œI needed to take a break to develop my acting skill. I'€™ve learned a lot from sinetron, but I wanted something bigger, and the movies are my calling,'€ he said. '€œI want to focus on film for now as I enjoy every bit of it.'€

Chicco said that he was looking for challenging roles outside his comfort zone to improve his craft.

Chicco followed up Cahaya with a role in the religious movie Seputih Cinta Melati (As White as a Jasmine'€™s Love) and will soon appear in Joko Anwar'€™s A Copy of My Mind and in Angga'€™s Filosofi Kopi (Coffee Philosophy, from the novel by Dee Lestari). Both films are slated for release in April.

For Filosofi Kopi, Chicco, who is also the movie'€™s producer, prepared for his role seriously. He took barista classes, took worked under instruction in coffee shops and visited coffee plantations.

'€œWinning the Citra Award has given me some kind of new force to do more and be better,'€ he says.