For an actor known for his eccentric standup comedy shows, Abishek Kumar delivers a measured performance with plenty of restraint in his recently released Prime Video series, Thalaivettiyaan Paalayam. He admits that such restraint does not come naturally to him.
“I started off doing theatre. I happened to replace one comedian who backed out of a show for personal reasons. So I am an ‘accidental stand-up comic,’” he says. He goes on to add, “I am different on stage from what I played in Thalaivettiyaan Paalayam. It is both challenging and exciting to play a character that is unlike who I am in real life.”
An added pressure was toplining the Tamil remake of a popular show like Panchayat. He says, “I am a fan of the original. What I loved about Panchayat is that it has no cliffhangers or turning points. It is pure problems and solutions, and sometimes there are almost only problems. So, headlining its Tamil remake came with its own pressures and challenges.”
The first challenge for Abishek was to hold back on his improvisation skills. “Siddharth, the character I play in Thalaivettiyaan Paalayam, does not give many counters or rebuttals. He is straightforward and sincere about his job, although he is not happy about where he is. So, I had to maintain that serious facade throughout. If it were me, I would have made fun of everyone else whom I interacted with in that village and gotten kicked out of there in a week’s time,” he laughs.
Abishek credits his director Naga for keeping him in “the perfect meter.” He says, “Naga sir ensures that you are not overplaying or underplaying the character,” says the actor, as he showers his director with praise. He also applauds Thalaivettiyaan Paalayam’s writer Balakumaran Murugesan. “Usually, while doing theatre or any other acting role, I make sure not to follow the script to a tee. But, here, for the first time, I really stuck to the lines in the script,” he says.
Speaking of lines, Abishek says that the characters in Thalaivettiyaan Paalayam are like the ones you would see in the southern parts of Tamil Nadu. “Down south, you meet many people with nakkal (sarcasm) in their veins. I used to go to schools in these villages to teach theatre to kids. They are so funny that they will put comedians to shame,” says a candid Abishek. The series draws a lot of its humour from Siddharth’s fish-out-of-water experience.
Abishek elaborates on how he realised that his character’s frustration with his situation should not come across as being judgemental. “Initially, I was acting like I hated everything around me. Then, my director gave me a crucial piece of feedback that I will never forget. He said, ‘You do not hate the people but rather your situation.’ This advice contributed to the beautiful arc and the comfortable relationship that I have with every other character,” says Abishek.
However, as Siddharth gets closer to the other characters, Abishek faced a different challenge. In one scene, Siddharth has an angry rant to a cop because he starts to feel alienated. Soon after he throws this tantrum, his village office team comes to calm him. Abishek says that it took him multiple takes to perfect the reaction. “I smiled a lot in the first take, but the director told me not to and explained that Siddharth’s happiness comes from an emotional place.”
Speaking of emotions, Thalaivettiyaan Paalayam has seasoned actors such as Chetan and Devadarsini playing expressive characters. Talking about his experience working with them, Abishek says, “This is my first lead role, but they did not let me feel that pressure. They are experienced but still so grounded. To give you context, they both met and fell in love at the same director’s set, in a show that was shot when I was not even born. My age is their experience on screen.”
Abishek also says that he would like to keep all his “avenues, options, and opportunities open” because he wants to “keep entertaining the audience in every way possible.” And, addressing whether there would be a Thalaivettiyaan Paalayam season 2, he signs off by saying, “It is like an exam result; we are still waiting for the result.”