“Anybody can act,” says Vijay Antony, over a phone call from the sets of his new film. “Correction. Anybody can act if they know their own weaknesses,” he repeats when asked about “finally” settling into the role of actor, after entering the Tamil film industry as a sound engineer and then as a music director.
“I knew my limitations even when I was a music director,” he adds, “There was nothing extraordinary about the work I was doing as a composer though I had delivered hits. There came a time when I had to introspect about my future and I felt I needed to do something more. I became an actor to survive,” he says.
A major risk then, he feels it has finally paid off. From producing his own films to fuel his acting career, Antony is now both a household name as well as a bankable star. “Now I know I can deliver what the director expects of me,” he says. “But I wouldn’t say I have improved so much as an actor. I’ve just learnt to mask my weaknesses better.”
Brain versus heart
This has led him to director Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi, who offered Kaali to him, a film where he plays a character with multiple shades. Initially hesitant to offer him the role given how Antony’s image revolved around characters with darker shades, Kiruthiga feels Antony was more that adept at pulling off the role.
The trick, according to Antony, is to choose films emotionally. “My decision to do a film is always an emotional one. Intelligent decisions may fail you but one’s instincts cannot. It’s like choosing a life partner...it cannot be an analytical, calculative decision,” he pauses to add, “I knew I had found my future wife two days after I met her for the first time.”
But the business side of cinema, he says is very different. “You just cannot afford to be emotional there. Promoting and marketing a film, for instance, needs to be carefully planned. Even producing a film needs to be worked out to the last detail. You can burn your fingers otherwise.”
This is the same with people in the business as well. “You can’t help it when it comes to the people you work with. You tend to rely on your instincts and that, at times, has been disastrous for me. I’ve been cheated many times...but that shouldn’t change who you are a person.”
Has the people in the industry changed the way they look at Antony, given his switch to stardom. “Of course there’s the good side and the bad sides to this as well. The good part is how I now have people who show their unconditional love for me because they have connected with my roles. It’s a great feeling.”
Star and the person
There are also the “unwanted complications that arise when you become more wanted. There’s also a lot of politics you need to deal with. But I try not to let it affect me. I know the difference between my image and the real me”.
Given his ambitious ascent to acting from sound designing, is there another move in his career? “I think I want to remain an actor ..it feels like this is it and everything before had led me to this place. But I wouldn’t call myself an ambitious person. I’m just trying to improve myself little by little, giving myself all the time I need. Considering I’ve come so far from nothing, after losing so much early on in life, everything I get is a bonus.”
