Shooting for debutant Ananth’s film Nanban Oruvan Vandha Piragu (NOVP), gave RJ Vijay, lots of memories and a bunch of close friends. It is no surprise that NOVP is a film that celebrates friendship.
However, it was the friendship that blossomed between the lead cast that took everyone in the crew by surprise.
RJ Vijay, who plays one of the leads, shares, “All of us, Monica Chinnakotla, Irfan, KPY Bala, Wilspat, Bhavani and Poornesh, bonded so well that acting just became an extension of the rapport we share offline.”
Most of the scenes had a dozen artists in the frame and mistakes by any one of them resulted in more retakes. “So to facilitate a smooth shoot, director Ananth arranged several workshops and rehearsals for us. Everyone avidly took part in the discussions, before the shoot. All this led to seamless coordination and fewer retakes.”
The usually amicable Vijay had to play a role which demanded him perform a range of emotions from anger to sadness. “It wasn’t easy. But to evoke those emotions I just had to think of the co-actors as my own close friends. I’m very emotional when it comes to my friends in real life. I get upset and emotional easily for them. So I channelled those emotions to get the take right. In fact, for one heated argument followed by a breakdown scene, I got so much into character that I started crying even without glycerine. At the end, I realised the whole set had become silent.”
Everyone lauded him after the take and Vijay goes on to confess a valuable realisation, “I learnt that if an actor believes in a scene and gets completely into the skin of the character, the emotion gets passed on to the audience as well!”
Performing the romantic scenes, however, took Vijay some time on sets. “That’s because Monica and I are such good friends. So, the idea of romancing each other took us some time to get used to. Initially, we kept joking and would burst into laughter. It took some coaxing by director Ananth for us to get serious and see each other as characters.”
For one montage song shoot on a beach with Monica, the director decided to keep things casual and natural. “There was just a small crew, with hidden cameras and nobody knew the shoot was on. Just then, a bunch of my friends, who happened to be on that beach, spotted me with Monica and started teasing me. Only when I explained to them that I was shooting for a film did they understand!”
RJ Vijay feels that the shoot of NOVP was extra special because it felt like a time portal to his teenage years in many ways.
“ Initially we were to shoot at Santhome but due to some reasons, the location was shifted to Lotus Colony in Nandanam. I was thrilled because I was born and brought up in the same area! So I got a chance to relive my own life experiences during that shoot. Be it hanging out at street corners with my buddies, playing at the local ground or taking a stroll through the streets near my school, recreating my life for a script was surreal.”
One day, RJ Vijay even ran into his childhood friend. “Once I was shooting at the exact spot where my friend Ishaq would cross every day while going home. I was thrilled and overjoyed to bump into him in the same place. I felt like a time traveller at that moment,” shares Vijay with a hearty smile.
However, on the last day of this film’s shoot, Vijay and the whole team became teary-eyed, “All of us belong to the same age group and share a great wavelength. Our camaraderie and bond helped us make this film about friendships as real as possible. I will always miss working with this lovely bunch of people,” shares an emotional Vijay.