Part 74: Who knew O Podu would become an anthem in Tamil Nadu?

The producer was such a crazy guy. When he felt happy with me he would send me a Lancer and pick me up. Other times I was lucky even to get an Ambassador. Many times I drove to the location myself. Once the movie was complete, I paid money for the publicity of the film. The producer had no interest in promoting the film. But I just knew: the movie would click. Call it gut, call it understanding cinema my way, I just knew it would click. And it hit bull’s eye. Know something? We made the movie for seventy lakhs and the film did more business than the biggest commercial hit of 2001--my own film Dil! And I won my second Filmfare award in a row.

I normally share very good relations with people. But I will never work with this producer again. I mean, it is one thing for others to not believe in something you do. But to produce a film and still try and sabotage your own product--that kind of work ethic is just wrong.

By this time, the Tamil film industry was coming to a consensus that I was definitely going the Kamal way--supposedly I show the same commitment, same dedication and choose scripts that are strong and character oriented.

And like in the case of Kamal, they doubted if I could carry off a purely commercial Film (an allegation often made against Kamal especially in the 1990s).

So I did Gemini, pure commercial potboiler with all the requisite dances, songs and fight sequences.And I enjoyed a lot while doing Gemini. That character has an attitude. He doesn’t care for anything at anytime. Instead of smoking we tried “Beeda”. All those action sequences, songs every thing was fine. So I like that role too.

More so because I did it soon after Kaasi. Working on Gemini was a dream. AVM decided to get back to making films after five years. Their last outing was Sapnay and that hadn't done too well. Charan, the director, had just had a bad professional experience with another film which had been shelved a week after shooting. The energy was there. The desire to make this film work was very strong. AVM was so organized and Charan Knew his style of commercial film-making very well. Then there was Kalabavan's mimicry in the film. And the song.

Who knew O Podu would become an anthem in Tamil Nadu? And making that 'V' sign with your index and middle finger and looking through that gap becoming 'the' sign of the year. Gemini went on its way to become one of the biggest commercial hits ever in the history of Tamil cinema!

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