Raghava Lawrence and SJ Suryah are self-made stars. They had to prove themselves as a dance choreographer and filmmaker, respectively, before they could face the camera as heroes. Maybe having faced the same kind of struggles enroute to their stardom, they seem to be part of a mutual admiration club. Lawrence reveals that it was he who wanted Suryah to play the other lead in their upcoming film, Jigarthanda Double X.
“I have seen the film and am happy with my performance in it. I say this with confidence because I had a terrific competition in the form of Suryah sir. He was initially hesitant to play a filmmaker on-screen. But I was determined to get him on board and was very excited when he accepted the offer.” Interestingly, Suryah, who has hit a purple patch in his career courtesy of his scenery-chewing performance in recent blockbusters like Mark Antony, Don, and Maanaadu, shares that Lawrence is one of the most competitive actors he has worked with.
“Though I have worked with a lot of encouraging teams in the past, Jigarthanda Double X was an entirely different experience as Lawrence master kept on saying, ‘Sir vitradheenga yeri adinga!’ before all my shots but made sure that he delivers a performance that matches and even outshines mine. When the audience sees the climax they can understand what I mean.”
All of us know that Lawrence is an ardent fan of Rajini and has confessed in many stages that the superstar has a great influence on his performances. But he shares that there wouldn’t be any shades of it in Jigarthanda Double X. “When commercial film directors pen heroes and ask me to star in it, I always go back to Rajini sir’s mannerisms. I guess it is natural for any actor to think, ‘how would Rajini sir play this character?’ before facing the camera. But, when we work with creators like Karthik Subbaraj, who create fresh characters and worlds for you to live in, there is no space for repetition or inspiration. I completely surrendered myself to his vision.”
Suryah seconds him saying, “The film will be a milestone in master’s career, just like how Mullum Malarum is in Rajinikanth’s body of work.”
While Suryah returns to the Karthik Subbaraj camp after the 2014 film, Iraivi, which relaunched his acting career with gusto, this is the first time Lawrence is working with the Mahaan filmmaker. Interestingly, Lawrence was considered for the role of Assault Sethu, which went on to win Bobby Simha a National Award for his performance in Jigarthanda (2013). Karthik came up with the idea of Jigarthanda Double X, a spiritual sequel to the original after Lawrence approached him for a collaboration. “I sensed that the taste of the audience has drastically changed and I should work with filmmakers who can present me in a new light.
Jigarthanda Double X is a film I signed after arriving at this realisation. Filmmakers like Lokesh Kanagaraj have altered the game massively and now audiences want limited emotions, a strong antagonist, ample theatre moments, and a racy screenplay. I found everything in this film. I have made a lot of miscalculations before I got this clarity. I am confident that Jigarthanda Double X will undo all of my missteps in the recent past,” reveals Lawrence.
Interestingly, Suryah who is the darling of the meme creators as an actor, was hailed by them after the release of Vijay-Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Leo for a unique reason. After the Leo team announced that the core flashback of the film might be a fake one presented from the point of view of an unreliable narrator, many netizens lauded Suryah for taking a much bolder creative choice in his 2015 film Isai. “I wanted to make an intense thriller, keep the audience on the edge of their seats till the climax and say, ‘Ellaam kanavu endhirichi ponga pa!’ I am glad that it is still being remembered and celebrated by a section of people. I feel it deserved more love during the time of its release. The unfavourable release window was a major factor that pulled down Isai.”
Jigarthanda was a genre-bending gangster comedy, which was also a musical in its own right. Being a spiritual sequel, Jigarthanda Double X is naturally expected to have more layers.
SJ Suryah shares that the writing of Karthik was so refined that he could feel all the intricate details even before the film went on floors. “It is a 100-crore-budget film and every day on the sets reminded me of the scale of the project.”
Being filmmakers themselves, I ask both Lawrence and Suryah if they were to direct each other what genre would they choose. “Gangster romance! I believe Suryah sir would ace it.” Suryah intervenes saying, “That’s exactly my next directorial. Killer is a gangster romance! If I were to make a film with master, I would ensure it is a dual hero subject, co-starring me.” We hope this camaraderie gets translated into future collaborations.