With Uyarthiru 420, one more lyricist from K-Town, Snehan, begins his acting career as a hero. This will be his second experience in front of the camera, with Yogi being the first two years ago in 2009. The way the ace lyricist landed his second acting job was an interesting incident. “Director Premnath was shooting an album of my collection of 10 poems called Vellai Arikkai (White Paper),” he explains. “I had to recite and enact the poems. Though we could not complete the album, the director spotted my acting potential and convinced me to take up the lead role.”
But the transformation from being a lyricist to an actor must have been difficult. “I regularly went to the gym, attended fight classes and learnt dance,” says Snehan. “Though in Uyarthiru 420 I don’t have much scope to dance, I did sing and dance for one song in Yogi.”
Speaking about Tamizh, the character he plays in the film, he says, “He is not a bad guy, but is someone who is more of an intellectual. He knows how to get his work done, true to the meaning of the title Uyarthiru 420, which means an honourable fraud. He is ably assisted by his friend Vaseekaran for whom Tamizh will go out of his way to help.” Does the film have a message? Is it about who emerges victorious in the end, the nallavan or vallavan? “You need to watch the film to know that,” he says. “If you ask me, the action in the film starts towards the climax, when the hero’s love interest enters (played by Meghana Raj).”
Snehan claims that hadn’t spoken a word to his leading lady until the end of the third shooting schedule began. “It was not at all easy for me to act out the romantic tracks in the film but Meghana broke the ice and until today we are the best of friends,” he says.
His fight-classes seem to have paid off, when he proudly reveals that he performed his own stunts in the film without a double. “Power Pandian trained me in the fight sequences and you need to watch out for the car chase in the film,” he says.
Despite the allure of acting as a hero, Snehan says his passion is writing. “I feel proud in calling myself a lyricist first, an actor second. I have written over 1,600 songs so far, full songs for nearly 50 films and I also have 20 other films on the cards,” he says. Apart from acting and writing songs, there is also an activist side to Snehan that not many are aware of.
“I run a NGO called Snehan Seyalagham, to which I contribute about 60 per cent of my funds. By the end of next year, I will adopt 100 children. My motivational speeches are still on in colleges and I have about 75,000 followers so far,” he says.