With a passion for acting, actors today go to any extent to get the look a character demands of them in a film — from developing six-pack abs, to trimming down or even tonsuring the head. But dusky lad Vishal has gone one step further to prove his acting prowess by squinting his eyes through the length of a film in Bala’s Avan Ivan. It ain’t just his love for cinema and acting that drove him to do this. The actor says he did it “for Bala”.
“My long-time friend and actor, Arya told me on my birthday that Bala wanted to meet me. When I met him, he completely took me by surprise when he offered me the role in Avan Ivan,” says Vishal, and the content in his voice is evident. Talking about his character, he adds, “I play a performer with a drama troupe. And Arya plays my younger brother.” Without revealing further, the actor just says that his character demands a completely different look of him.
So how did the squint-eye idea come to be? “We had actually completed the first schedule of the shoot, but Bala said he still saw a Loyola College kid in me and not the character — Walter Vanangamudi. He asked me to squint my eyes and when I did, he immediately called a still photographer and had him take my pictures. I could see that Bala was literally in tears, as he loved the look,” says Vishal. While doing his research and getting references for the role, Vishal was surprised to know that no actor had previously appeared as a squint. “The fact that I was going to do something that no actor, not even a Hollywood actor had done before, gave me a kick,” smiles Vishal.
So, is he aiming for any awards with this off-beat role? “No. Awards were not on my mind. I knew that once I had taken up this role, I was in the safe hands of Bala — a director who’s very clear about what he wants. The shooting has been completed and the film will hit the screens in April. Avan Ivan is a complete entertainer with the trademark Bala stamp on it,” says Vishal, whose family members came to know about his look in the film only after the ads were out. “I knew they would not approve of it. So, I just told them I was trying out something new and it was only after the shooting was over, did they come to know what it really was,” he laughs.
How challenging was the role? “It was a traumatic experience, especially, during the fight and song sequences. The shooting took more than 220 days and I ended up with a permanent headache and eye pain. I got so used to that pain that I’m numb to it now,” says Vishal, who is now busy with two projects — one with Prabhu Deva and the other with Bhoopathy Pandian.