Salim Kumar on his Michael Jackson avatar in ‘Chathikkatha Chandu’
The character he played in ‘Chathikkatha Chandu’ was a spoof of the popstar but Salim Kumar says he is a hardcore fan of Michael Jackson. “I was addicted to his albums like ‘Bad’ and ‘Dangerous’. The élan with which he rendered his songs was magnetic. What I love most about the pop legend is that all his songs, implicitly or explicitly, carried some message for humanity,” says Salim Kumar.
The actor says that the MJ look-alike he played in the film was not pre-planned. “We wanted something different but we were not sure of the look of the dance master I played. When make-up man Pattanam Rasheed tried a particular wig on me everyone noticed the resemblance to MJ and we decided to try it out.”
Salim Kumar says that initially he was apprehensive of the plan. “We used rubber solution instead of pancake. Wearing it for long hours was irksome. Though unit members said I looked every inch the pop star I was stressed. Some foreigners staying at the guesthouse where the filming was going on rushed to me excitedly when I came out of the make-up room. Some of them called out ‘Look! That’s Michael Jackson!’ After that incident I felt confident.”