After Aaranya Kaandam , Jackie Shroff was keen to do more Tamil films, and why not, considering how well-received the film was. He almost expresses delight that the Tamil stars, who Thiagarajan originally approached for the role, turned it down—they weren’t keen to play a character suffering from impotency.
“Even now, no matter who I speak with—porter, director, or a journalist like yourself—I get immense respect for the film. Director Thiagarajan Kumararaja is on top of the pyramid, in my opinion.” However, despite its success, with the exception of Kochadaiiyaan which he agreed to do for “Rajini gaaru ”, he didn’t quite get too many promising offers from Tamil directors. But when C. V. Kumar approached him for his directorial debut, Mayavan , Jackie had no hesitation in accepting it. Why? “Because Kumararaja put me on to him. I didn’t know this gentleman (C. V. Kumar) then, but now I realise he’s quite influential in Tamil cinema.”
He can’t reveal too much about the story, except that he plays “an army man with grey shades.” Now through with the shooting of the film, Jackie expresses distaste for those who divide Indian cinema by its regions. “There’s no difference; they are all the same. Many Hindi films I’ve worked on have had South Indian cinematographers like Santosh Sivan and Madhu Ambat. It’s all just one industry.” And that’s why he finds it quite funny when people use terms like Kollywood and Tollywood. “Kolly, Tolly, Bolly, Molly… all these terms sound funny to me. It’s Indian cinema, people!”
Jackie isn’t one though to follow Indian cinema closely, especially South Indian. “Instead, I’m bananas about films like Terminator and Superman . Films like TheJungle Book make me cry; so, you can imagine. I’m a child at heart. That’s why I’m quite kicked about watching Rajini gaaru ’s 2.0 .”
