Part 73: Everyone was against my doing the film 'Kaasi'!

‘The shock from Sethu to Dil was barely over when Vikram returned with a tour-de-force knockout performanceOf a blind man in Kaasi,’ said one of Tamil Nadu’s biggest English newspapers in its review of the film. I had to do Kaasi.

Even my manager Giri told me that I’m crazy to do such a film at that point of my career, but I told him to wait and watch. Believe me, I am so happy that I did Kasi and as an actor I was able to experiment with a new subject. My wife, my commercial film producers, ––everyone was against my doing the film. It’s too different.

Especially after Dil. But I was determined to do it. After Dil, people had accepted me as an action hero but I did not have an image. Maybe two films down the road I would also get stereotyped. I knew that the time was just right for Kaasi. I had to use the opportunity to my benefit. So I did it. Of course, the movie was a remake from Malayalam and Kalabavan Mani had done a fabulous job in the original. When I saw the Malayalam movie, 'Vasanthiyum, Latchumiyum pinna naanum, I was thrilled and decided that moment that I should play the role which Kalabhavan Mani did in that movie. He had played the role of a sight-impaired so impressively well. But it was not easy for me to keep the pupil of my up under the eyelid, as did Kalabhavan Mani. Then I thought 'when it was possible for Mani, why not me?' and trained myself regularly with single-minded devotion, daily.

So the challenge was to add nuances to my performance in Tamil that would try to be at least as good as Mani’s.

I was known as a good-looking hero. In Kaasi I had to be completely deglamorized, even ugly. I was supposed to be a dirt-poor blind singer. Once again the workouts started–the tanning so as to look sickly, the effort with rolling up the eyeballs. It was an excruciating six months before we actually shot the film. The blind man I played was unlike what any actor in Tamil cinema had ever done before. I mean I did not wear the customary dark glasses and walk round with a stick. Instead, I practiced rolling my eyeballs rigorously for a few months in a way that they just did not show any more.

I was told when acting for 'Kasi' that there was no use in putting in extra efforts and overstraining for the movie, because Kalabhavan Mani had already received a national award for playing the role. Moreover, this was only a remake. A remake doesn't stand a chance of getting any award. As far as I am concerned, I would be happy if I am the recipient of an award. But it is more important for me to win the approval of my audience. More over, I had lost the Best Actor award for my performance in Sethu. I therefore did not attach much importance to it.

I then spent a few more months practising how to speak, sing, shower, try different expressions and even added a few drops of glycerine in the eyes––all this with the eyeballs rolled up.

The thing about rolling your eyeballs is that by itself it is not difficult. Anyone can do it. It becomes difficult, even painful, when you have to ‘act’ with your eyeballs rolled up. For someone who is not blind and who uses his eyes to get his fundamental expressions across, suddenly not being able to use the eyes and still emote is difficult. In my case I had to emote with rolled- up eyeballs.

It was only after I could do it convincingly well that I approached director Vinayan and told him that I would play the role in the Tamil version of the movie.' But Vinayan came out with another idea. He said that there was no need for me to go through such a difficult job. I can better wear contact lens, especially available for the purpose and play the role. I could not accept this. That would affect a realistic portrayal.

And then when the shooting started, I faced difficulty of another kind. Many a time, in between a long dialogue, my eyeballs would roll down and we would have to take again. We therefore stopped with the shooting of first scene. Then I underwent an intense self-training. I could do it only with regular and continued training. It was very painful initially. But when I got used to it and did it without much effort, half the movie was shot already. May be, if I am asked to play a second innings now, I won't find it that difficult! Then there were those scenes when I had to bathe under a waterfall. No problem. Till the director wanted a close-up and the water got in the eyes. The eyeballs rolled right back down. So back to practicing. Back to more retakes. Back to more pain.

I was probably the only one who believed in it.

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