Part 78: The most heavenly moments of my life!

Even today, I am a normal person who takes a walk along the road, lights a cigarette at the roadside corner shop and chats with his friends. For the past few days I don't get time for all these things. I have become a child who is bewildered with the huge quantity of homework around him.

My son is angry at me for being busy at shootings. You know what Dhruv said the other day? ‘Daddy, I am so angry with you I won’t even see you on TV any more. I had a fight with you when you came on TV. But it was no fun. You didn’t fight back. I hated that, Daddy. When he complains 'Why did you marry him mom? Instead of singing duet with you, he is dancing with Sneha!' I feel like laughing and also feel sad at the same time.
What do I tell him?

The minute I get to the location, I forget my kids Dhruv and Akshitha.

I love perfumes. Now I’ve bought almost all kind of perfumes. But during the time of "Sethu" I bought a perform.. no just before "Sethu", "Davidoff cool waters". Even though it was a very small bottle I used to use it very little and used it till 5 years now of course I bought many perfumes as I have many.
I love to wear black for functions. But if a black cat crosses my car, I would wait for another car to pass by me. I won't see ghost movies in the night. I am afraid of darkness. But I still love black.

My favourite hobby is sleeping, viewing nature. Being with my kids is my favourite, favourite hobby I don’t get tired when I play with them. Roaming with them going to restaurant. Chumma one drive or simply sitting at beach, playing hide and seek, running race with them and stuff like that I like a lot.I just go around as per a normal person. I stop at teashops, I have a coffee and they have got used to me. If I go out with my family, if I go cycling, I go walking, I go to the beach, I sit down, I go shopping, I go and do the groceries, I do all this and so people have become familiar with my presence

I walk on streets and Besant Nagar, where I stay, is a cosmopolitan place not many people bother you. I walk around all the time, they have gotten used to me only if they suddenly feel "Hey this guy is an actor" this happens if u have a wall around you and you suddenly it take away, then they mob you.

Actually I've combined both. The thing is I forget cinema for example when I go to my kids school, all the children like me now because of O Podu and all that but when they ask for autographs I say " No. No autographs. I'm your uncle remember. How can I give u an autograph." So now they have accepted me as a friend. So I think that keeps it different. I don't sign autographs when I visit my kids' school. I tell their friends that I'm their uncle and not an actor. I want the fame, but I don't think my family does. I am sad that I did not have a grandfather or grandmother. Honestly I like people and I love socialising. My wife is like that too ... I've imbibed a lot from her.
Shaila, My loving wife. She is the only one who has been with me since the time I was nobody and has seen me through my ups and downs. I am more proud to be known as Shaila's husband than Shaila being my wife. She does a lot of social service and helps a lot of people without my knowing most of the time and till today she goes around Chennai in an auto. Shaila can still go to the market or take a stroll on the beach. She still travels by auto.
When she was pregnant I wanted a baby boy badly and felt a little disappointed when my daughter Akshita was born but I feel ashamed of that now. She's like a friend whenever she tells me the shirt he's wearing isn't nice. I am fond of kissing - kissing my daughter Akshita, studying in sixth and son Dhruv studying in second standard. I don't find it hard keep my private and public life separate. I kind of cultivated it over the years but what I have done is actually I have worked the other way around them, I don't go for cinema functions with my family, I mean I don't talk about my family or what I did that's different. When I go home I forget cinema. That's what I do.
My idea of a holiday is being at home. Not having any shooting. Can you believe it? Ten years I wanted to work but sat at home - no work. Now I am working so much, when I get a break, when I get a holiday I do not want to go out anywhere – just be at home and relax with the family. Just do nothing. But it doesn't work that way. The day they see me with a break they would be waiting to go out. Whenever I get time I like to just stay at home, or you just go somewhere, watch a movie, `Prarthana' or `Mayajaal' or go to best friend Mala – go to her house- just hang around. When I go home I don't build a wall around myself.


I’m very sensitive, very talkative, basically you won't believe it but I am basically an introvert. When I get into a group I keep very quiet and once the ice is broken, I sit on everybody's head. I am too much of an extrovert after that. I make friends very easily but my best friends took a lot of time and nurturing but once they become my best friends we think alike.
I would love to be born on my next birth as Chiyaan. I love to have cooked and soaked rive of previous day with salted dried fish as a side dish. I love swimming very much. There are many more small wishes like that.

My role model is my father Vinod Raj. My mother Rajeswari, she always wish fervorantly that, I should have the best things in the world. She is everything for me. When I became dejected with failures, she would give me back self-confidence.

Be happy and keep others happy. That’s my ambition. We are simple people. My only passion is cars. I wanted a sports car and that's it. Otherwise we still live in a rented house. I have 6 cars. To be honest, there is not enough space to park the car at home, my house is quite small.


If you ask me which is my favorite place in the world, I would say it is my home. Our living was depended on how much we made. We lived in a middle class flat for 10 years. I brought a second hand car in the beginning. Later on, when Kaasi turned out to be a hit, we rented a house for $ 9,000. We still live in the same house. Most people are surprised to see my house, they find it small but in a small house, the happiness is more. When I reach home, I forget the cinema completely. The moment that I have my son and daughter asleep on my chest is the most heavenly moment of my life.

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