Gibran Osman, who pleased the crowds with his boy-next-door look and dimples, for three years on SS Music, might just have a few shocks in store for fans. For one, his first feature film, ‘Bale Pandiya’ directed by Siddharth Chandrasekhar, stars him as a baddie opposite Vishnu Vishal and Piaa Bajpai.
“I play the villain, a cold-blooded murderer, named Kachitham, who has a severe form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD),” he says and smiles.
Gibran has taken on a variety of roles in short films like ‘Naanum Avargalum’, as a software engineer, or in theatre, in Evam’s ‘An Idiot for Dinner’, “which was our version of the Hindi film, ‘Bheja Fry’ and I played Sameer, the role played by Milind Soman in the movie.”
Enthusiasts will also remember him as George Bailey in the Boardwalkers production of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’.
Preparing for this role has been an interesting ride, he says. “I had to learn how to do cinema stunts, from stunt master Pandiyan. So that involved perfecting a number of punches and kicks which took me five rehearsals to get right. My stunt double, Manish, was a lot of fun, and he showed me how to do many of these stunts,” he says, without revealing too much.
“I want the audience to be surprised by what they see,” he explains and says that veteran actor Prakash Raj has been a source of inspiration in his unpredictability. “You never know what kind of role he is going to take up next,” says Osman.
A little known fact is that Osman had to shave his body for the role. “Kachitham has a severe form of OCD, called trichotillomania, where he has an obsessive need to pluck out his hair,” he reveals. That must have been...interesting. “Well, yeah this was a real discovery, I didn’t have a godfather to ask if this is how it’s done, or ‘Hello, can we use makeup instead!’ Or, ‘How did they do it in ‘Dasavathaaram’?’” he jokes, saying that his look received a lot of praise from the film crew.
So, how did he take it all off ?
“I’m a big fan of Katrina Kaif, so I used Veet. Manish, however, did not have to shave off everything,” he says and laughs.
It seems Osman is all set to surprise his fan base. “I watched the television series, ‘Monk’, to understand how a person with OCD would behave. Also, I watched the movie ‘Hitman’, where the protagonist, trained purely to kill, is over-the-top and does not fit into a social realm,” he says.
Shooting for the film was fun as well. “Much of the film was shot in Chennai, and a fight sequence in Kachitham’s home, which is a yacht. Yeah, my character lives on a yacht, so much of what I wear are blues and greys to reflect my love for the sea,” he says. And how was Thailand (where some of the film was shot), we ask with a wink. “Well, when you shoot for 16-18 hours a day, you get to explore the city only past midnight!” he winks back.
‘Bale Pandiya’ is scheduled to release in theatres on September 3.