As he walks into the room and takes a seat, he looks relaxed and happy. Despite no release for the last two-and-a-half years, Simbu remains as popular as ever, with his fans kicked about his latest films—Achcham Enbadhu Madamaiyada (with director Gautham Menon), and one with Selvaraghavan.
Simbu’s previous film with Menon, Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya (VTV) in 2010, changed his image completely to a romantic and mature hero. Ask him about his current project with Menon after the stupendous success of VTV and Simbu says, “Gautham is known for his romantic tracks. In this movie, the first half will be all romantic and the second half is when things change and there’s action. It’ll be in a similar genre to Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu and Yennai Aridhaal. In the second schedule, we’ll be shooting a road trip. This is the first road trip film for me.”
Simbu has always shared a special bond with Menon. So what makes this relationship special? “I have worked with a lot of directors, but I have the best equation with him. If you go on set, you’ll see many directors concerned about every other thing than the actual scenes and acting. They’ll be like, has the food come? Where is this AD? Why is that there? But Menon is not like that—he’s not bothered about anything else except the scenes and actors, and how that scene should be done and shot,” says the actor.
The 30-year-old goes on to add that freedom to improvise in a scene is important to an actor and Menon understands that. “The issue with so-called ‘big directors’ is that they never give you freedom to improvise. If there’s a dialogue, for instance, you have to say it exactly as written. They don’t allow you to change it even slightly because they think they know better and are too egoistic to allow you to make amends. Gautham will only see if any improvisation makes a scene better. He’s not egoistic about this,” explains the actor.
Like all actors, Simbu too looks at appreciation from the director and audience rather than just monetary rewards when performing a role. To him, it’s the fuel that keeps them going to perform better and do good films. “I’m not acting for money but because it’s a passion. When the director praises me for a scene, I feel really good. And Gautham shows that appreciation openly to all his actors,” says Simbu appreciating him.
In fact, Simbu was one of the first actors to voice his desire to work with Menon when Suriya walked out of the latter’s film. “After VTV, Gautham and I were in constant touch. We had decided that when both of us had time, we would do a film. When Yohan with Vijay didn’t happen and Suriya’s project also didn’t, we decided to do our film,” he says.
Meanwhile, Simbu has also signed a film with Selvaraghavan and is kicked about it as his good friend Yuvan Shankar Raja will be doing the music. Simbu teams up with Trisha once again and expectations post VTV are high.
Simbu and controversies often go hand-in-hand, but of late, he’s become more spiritual and mature in his outlook. He, however, still continues to remain outspoken. Some of the issues affecting him now are how the marketing of films has taken precedence over good content in Tamil cinema and how some in the industry are trying to control aspects of it. As he signs off, Simbu says, “Marketing of films now involves comparing two actors on social media, which I don’t think is required at all. Every actor has a place in this industry.”