A zombie movie ( Miruthan ), a jungle adventure ( Vanamagan ) and now India’s first space film ( Tik Tik Tik ). It’s as though regular scripts don’t appeal to Jayam Ravi any more. As he sees it, an actor should choose a script that’s the ‘equivalent of five films’ given how short an actor’s career can be. And with films like the mega-budget Sangamithra in the pipeline, it doesn’t look like he is kidding.
Excerpts from an interview:
Tik Tik Tik is your second film with Shakti Soundar Rajan after Miruthan . When he approached you with an idea of a space film, how much did you think about if it could be executed or not?
Being able to execute such an ambitious film is always on my mind. It’s really difficult — that’s why no one has attempted such an idea all these years.
When Shakti approached me after Miruthan , he said he had two scripts for me — a small one and a big one. Lead actors today don’t have the luxury to act in hundreds of films. Whichever film we choose to do has to be the equivalent of doing five films. So I asked him to write the ‘big’ one, and that is Tik Tik Tik . He narrated a script that I just loved... but that’s also when the doubts started to arise.
What were these doubts?
Shakti explained the technical side of it. He told us that as actors, we would have little to work with, in terms of environment. Eighty % of the shoot happened on the sets of a spaceship and all the actors had to interact within that space. Everything that’s outside was green screen, which would later be filled in using CGI. He showed lots of references to make us understand how the final output would look, and we were all curious. Honestly, when I started this movie, I was only 80% sure that it could come out well. Others were only 20% sure.
Did you get to see the CGI shots before you finished the film?
I did. He showed me a few shots that had just come back from the CGI company, and that’s when I became 100% confident. Not only was I relieved, but I was also blown away.
As an actor, how well do you know the technical side?
I come from a film background and I studied visual communication, so the technical side isn’t alien to me. I might not know the details, but I know whose opinion and ability to trust. Shakti, of course, knows everything about it.
Since I’ve acted in films that have used CGI before, I knew how to act in scenes that required a lot of post-production work. For instance, I had worked in Nimirndhu Nil, in which I had extended scenes that were a double role. In fight scenes, there were portions where I would have to shoot with a body double, imagining he was me. Things like matching eyeline were things I picked up from there, and it helped me in Tik Tik Tik as well.
So when you’re acting in such a film, how do you adapt to not having an environment to work with, because most of it is in green screen?
That’s when our experience as an actor comes into play. We have to rely on our imagination for such scenes. There’s this scene where I have to look out of the spaceship to see Earth. I’m actually just looking at a green screen, but in the scene, I’m looking at Earth and thinking about my son. There’s even an emotional dialogue that I have to deliver, where I say that no other father has been so far away from his son. It’s a dialogue that gave me goosebumps, and it works because we’re relying on the script.
You’re essentially working with very little during the shoot. But how does it feel to watch the output when you’re dubbing for it?
Oh it’s like no other film I’ve done before. When I dubbed for Tik Tik Tik , I felt like I was watching a whole new movie. Usually, we work so closely with a film that you know what to expect during the dub. But this was so exciting. I imagine this is what voice actors feel like in animated movies.
Your son Aarav makes his debut with this film.
When Shakti suggested we cast him, I wasn’t 100% sure. We shot during the weekends so he didn’t have to miss school. But Aarav was so natural in front of the camera. It was like I too could learn a thing or two from him.
