Vikram bucks trends. The south Indian actor defies images. His image is “no image.” For an actor, who has struggled in bit roles, supporting characters and spells of no-work, today, Vikram rules the box-office. The true turning point in his career came with Sethu, a film that was remade into Hindi as Tere Naam, featuring Salman Khan. The portrayal of a youngster traumatised in a mental asylum nearly fetched Vikram the best actor award at the national level. Vikram admits he felt dejected for many months.
The film was a box-office hit too, and suddenly, Vikram found himself transforming as the next “angry young man” to hit Tamil cinema. His subsequent films followed a formula: A wronged youngster fighting mobs with bare hands. His heroes wore one-week stubble, dressed shabbily, danced on the streets, and fought and fought. Action took a new dimension in Vikram’s films, and audiences loved his heroes with some negative shades thrown in for good measure.
Every once in a while, he took a break from the out and out action roles and concentrated on performance-oriented films. Kashi, a remake of the Malayalam film, Vasanthiyum, Lakshmiyum Pinne Njanum, had Vikram in the role of a blind street singer. In King, he played a dying youngster, checking in from a Far Eastern city to reconcile his dad with his family.
And then came Pithamagan. Director Bala, who had assessed Vikram’s talent too well in Sethu, cast him in the role of a cemetery care-taker, who eventually learns love and friendship. Vikram did not have one decent line of a dialogue in the film and he had to convey it all through expressions and a distinct body language.
With Pithamagan, the actor became star had graduated into the boots of an accomplished performer. And now, he stars in hit-maker Shankar’s film, almost a year in the making.
He is not prolific in the number of films; he picks and chooses, ensuring that when he arrives at the silver screen, he makes it in style — with a zeal that can be seldom associated with other actors.
He also stands for the youth brigade in Tamil, who offer a perfect complement to the ageing “mega-stars.” It was glorious moment for the actor, when Rajnikanth described Vikram as his “heir” to the throne of action star after watching the youngster’s film, Sami.
Thoroughly unassuming, Vikram, known to his friends as Kenny, can be an interviewer’s delight. No airs. No tantrums. A thorough professional.
Excerpts from an interview:
A little late in the day, perhaps, but how has life been since winning the national award?
It feels nice. I guess it has brought about a sort of national level recognition. Though my films have been seen by people down south, up north, they hadn’t really aware. Now, suddenly, people from there walk up to me, commend on the film and my performance. It feels good.
Has it compensated for the disappointment at not winning the award for Sethu?
In fact, I wasn’t really thinking about an award while Sethu released. Later, it went to the awards, the committee saw it, applauded my performance and wanted to see it again. Until then, I had never hoped for an award but then my expectations started going up. When I didn’t win the award, I was low for a couple of months. This time, however, I just took in my stride. If I win, let it be. If not, let it be. But the fact is that I enjoyed doing the role.
Which of the two characters — from Sethu and Pithamagan — do you hold close to your heart?
It has to be Sethu. I would definitely have felt better if I had won the award for Sethu because it is a role I hold dear to myself. It gave me my first break and I had simply loved the story. As for Pithamagan, the involvement was one step ahead. The entire unit worked on the film like a close-knit team. We were all multi-tasking — as assistants to the director, as costume designers… We did a lot of homework too. Every one in the unit felt like an integral part than any other movie we worked on.
As for the character itself, director Bala did not tell me a story. He described the character to me. We worked together much before on every scene, every situation so much that I knew what came before and after every shot. Normally, as an actor, you come up and do the shot. Period. No, with Pithamagan, acting was a continuum. I didn’t have to think of the role or character. I just had to go in front of the camera and start off….
On the one hand you do performance-oriented films; at other times, you do out and out action films? What is your comfort zone?
I love doing them both but of course, my first love would be a performance-oriented character. Second comes pucca, real commercial films.
You had done a lot of bit roles, sidekick takes and what not before you made it big. How do you look back on your career?
For me, I guess, success has been the result of a combination of hard work, perseverance and a little talent. I won’t add luck to it in a major way because had I been lucky, success would have happened much earlier. But the hard fact is that despite the setbacks and upsets, I never was distracted. Even when nothing happened, and my good friends suggested me to get into business or whatever, their full support always assured, I stayed put with my dreams about cinema. That is important. If you start wavering, start trying to work at other jobs while waiting for chances, you stop looking like an actor. Your psyche changes, you falter. I was like the horse — I knew I had to get there and I went for dancing classes and the like. I was always chasing a goal, and that kept me going.
Now, fame, recognition, money and success later, what next? Have your priorities changed?
Not at all. It took three days for the very fact that I had won the award to sink in, and it burst when I told about the award to my daughter, and watching her rather ‘so what?’ look, I just feel all the more relaxed. I guess, the award is like a calling card — it is good for national level identification.
You also acted in Malayalam. Your role in Dhruvam with Mammootty was noticed too. Why don’t you do more Malayalam films now?
Dhruvam happened after Meera, my third Tamil film. Director Joshy saw my photograph in a magazine and simply asked his production executive, Shanmugam, to fetch me. That was it. But now, it might be difficult to do Malayalam films because the industry can’t perhaps pay what I get by doing Tamil films. But then, money is not really a criteria. If I get a good role, something that interests and challenges me, I will do Malayalam films.
It has been reported that you fell-out with Bala, who is regarded as your mentor-director. Is it true?
We go back a long way. We are first friends and we are very close. For all you know, I might just call him right away and start chatting.
You are at the vanguard of the youth movement in Tamil cinema today. Young guys seem to have upstaged the ageing superstars…
Nothing of it is planned. It is just that we have all got more aggressive with our work, especially post-Sethu because it was a film that brought in a new sense of naturality to Tamil films, otherwise known to being out and out commercial and artificial. Sethu was a thoroughly deglamourised character and it has kind of provoked actors to look different, and not be wary of images.
But do you feel, with your action films, you too are falling into an image trap?
I do have an image. That is one of having no image. It can actually work against you. I can’t do a normal film anymore. Action or not, my film has to be different.
But your films more or less fall into the groove as far as the story-line and situations are concerned…
Come to think of it. What you can essentially have is a protagonist, an antagonist, a romance, some songs and dances… Such films come in a format but we try to find out what moves the audiences. In a way, it is like life itself. Every one is born, every one dies. But you try to make your subtle differences. I too try to present something that stirs audiences in a different sort of way.
Forever goal-driven that you are, what are your goals now?
I am just taking one film at a time now. My film with Shankar has taken about a year. But the time that goes into production does not matter to me. I am willing to work day in and day out, three days and nights at a stretch until I fall down exhausted. Acting is my passion. I sleep thinking of cinema, wake up and life revolves around it. When I do a project, that alone is in my mind. The food I eat, the make-up I do, the books I read… everything now, centres around the Shankar film. That is my immediate goal. And this role is the most complex I have ever done.
So that is another award-role in the making?
Shankar said so in an interview…
Your characters are angry, you seem like a rebel on-screen. Are you one in life too?
Most people ask me whether I get angry. No, I never lose my temper. If I am upset about something, if I sense a misunderstanding, I just walk up to the person and talk it over. I don’t keep things inside me. I am a bad actor in real life. I can’t lie, and if I do so, you can make out I am lying. I trust people implicitly and I guess, I am a happy man with no mood swings. I simply don’t like chaos.
For one who has seen the true downside of the film industry, with all those disappointments early on, do you feel you are in a position to get even with people who might have hurt you?
I don’t hold grudges. In fact, I am only thankful to all — my fans, for patiently waiting for my releases that come after many months; my directors and the press, who has always stood by me. And anyway, I have never asked a chance to work to anyone except Shankar. That I did, after Sethu. I have always wanted to work with him. Mani Ratnam is another favourite. So no director had to actually refuse me work. I know they use actors that work for the totality of the project. That is only practical. I say to my friends that even if my mother were to produce and distribute a film, I won’t give her my dates because she is not a good producer or distributor. I keep friendship and relationships separate from my profession. I am very particular about that. I want the best alone for a film I do, and I can very well understand directors making their choice. They always need someone who is viable. Therefore I have no regrets, and certainly, no grudges. You know, I was supposed to do his Bombay and when I missed the chance, I lost sleep for more than a month. Today, I am sitting somewhere comfortable enough, where I can do really good roles and work with really good directors. This is where I have always wanted to be, and I hope that fire doesn’t die down in me.
February 2005
