Aandavan Kattalai has opened last week to an overwhelming response just after the box-office winner Dharmadurai (August 2016) and the critically acclaimed Iraivi (June 2016). Vijay Sethupathi’s sharp mind shines through, both in his choice of scripts and in this free-wheeling chat with City Express. Some excerpts...
How does it feel to have a release every three months? Did you plan your career this way?
So far no one’s complained about seeing me so often (laughs) and seriously, a film’s release date is not in my control! But the audience has proved that they know to transition beautifully between my frequent films! I didn’t plan my career earlier and I don’t even now. Naanum Rowdy Dhaan (2015) wasn’t offered to me first but I did it for Vignesh Shiva; KKKPo (March 2016) was ‘planned’ for 2013 and I told Nalan to get a ‘saleable’ actor then, but he eventually came back to me in 2015; when I couldn’t do Asault Sethu’s role in Jigarthanda (2014), I had told Karthik that I will be in his next film, no matter what role he gives me. Iraivi happened thus and Dharmadurai was an instant ‘yes’ as I will do any role for my first-film director Seenu Ramasamy.
Your initial choice of scripts was seen as risky but now you’re a bankable man of the masses (Makkal Selvan) despite not choosing the regular stories – has this gamble paid off?
(Laughs) I don’t see it as a gamble at all! I read my scripts like a school student and make ‘mindful’ choices. I want my films to be good in content and commercially viable. For a hero to be accepted when he does super-human things, (as you will see me in Rekka releasing in Oct 2016), he must first be ‘liked’ by the audience universally. So it would’ve been impossible for me to pull off beating up 20 men in the beginning of my career. Sethupathi (Feb 2016) succeeded as a ‘mass film’ after I was accepted as an actor in Pizza (2014), Pannaiyaarum Padminiyum (2014), Idharkkuthaaney Aasaipattai Balakumaraa (2013), Soodhu Kavvum (2013) and Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanum (2012).
Your characters appear so ‘lived-in’ and real, despite no major change to your appearance (so far). Do you have a ‘formula’ for your acting?
Thank you! No I don’t prepare ‘specially’ for any role. Words like ‘method acting’ or ‘body language’ scare me. But understanding the character is a basic requirement of being an actor, isn’t it? I discuss a lot with my writer and director before giving my shot and I do my bit to ensure the film works in totality.
Is it involvement or interference?
I dislike that word (interference)…only if I poke my nose in your personal matter it can be called interference! When I’m asking relevant questions to better my performance and suggest what I know from my life experiences how can it be anything but ‘involvement’? For instance, the mannerisms my character (Gandhi) does in Aandavan Kattalai like carrying a stick instead of an accounts notebook when he is promoted as manager of the troupe (like the real Gandhi) or twirling a leaf as he walks, to denote his life’s just going around in circles or drawing boxes on a paper as someone talks to him to depict how his life is ‘boxed’ in those squares from which he desperately tries to escape... was all done after a healthy discussion with Manikandan. The comedy is getting so much applause — this ‘magic’ can happen only if co-actors and the unit involve themselves in the filmmaking process with the director!
Your flair for comedy and your dialogue delivery in particular doesn’t sound like someone writes these lines for you...
(Finishes the line) If it sounds like how the character thinks even before he speaks, it is good. I ask the ‘whys and the wherefores’ before I say my lines. My comedy has a realistic timing because I try and capture the most natural trait of the character and maintain it. This is how I approach all my films and it gives me a lot of satisfaction when it’s met with commercial success.
(The writer is a columnist with ‘The New Indian Express’)