It all happened in 2013 when director A. R. Murugadoss saw a poster of Thandavam , a film that marked G. V. Prakash’s 25th project as a composer. The poster had him enthusiastically crooning into a microphone. “He liked that photo and called to ask if I’d act in his production,” he says. Of course, Prakash found it an odd request. “I was already a successful composer and wasn’t sure if I should step into acting.” However, Murugadoss has a way with words and got Prakash to agree. It turned out to be a damp squib though, as the project didn’t take off, but the seeds of acting had been sowed in his head.
Pretty soon, he signed on three films as actor — Darling , Trisha Illana Nayanthara , and Pencil — with the first one all set for launch. “Gnanavel sir (K. E. Gnanavel Raja of Studio Green productions) saw me sporting a beard, as I was walking out of a gym, and immediately decided to cast me for his remake of the 2013 Telugu horror hit Prema Katha Chitram . I agreed immediately, as we go back a long time,” he says, adding, “Almost all top production companies wanted to remake the film. Horror is doing well at the box-office.”
G. V. Prakash took acting classes from Naren (of Aadukalam fame) but says that acting came naturally as he was already a singer. “If you cannot emote, you cannot sing. Singers are performers, and what’s performance without bhaavam? A singer is half an actor already.”
Prakash plays a lovelorn young man called Kathir in Darling . “The character is already in a lot of emotional pain, and his situation worsens when he ends up being tormented by a ghost!” The actor would conscientiously take the script home to rehearse his lines before stepping on the sets, but insists that acting hasn’t impeded his composing, as he has several films lined up by directors like Vetrimaaran, A. L. Vijay, Atlee, and Jawahar.
He considers himself a risk taker. “I started off with the keyboard and gravitated towards composing. I stepped into production too. And now, I’m testing waters with acting. Can anybody truly say they have succeeded without taking risks?” About being composer and actor on the same film, Prakash says he gives it his all “like I always do”. He has sung one song each in Darling and Pencil , and says, “I thought I needed my voice there, so it’d seem more authentic when I’m singing it on screen.”
A. R. Rahman, Prakash’s uncle, expressed his approval by recently tweeting the teaser of Darling . “He is definitely happy about it,” says Prakash, who believes people around him are used to having him ‘freak them out’ regularly. “I sprang a surprise when I sang in my 15th film. And now, I’m acting. Also, in answer to your question, I can guarantee you that it has nothing to do with increasing the number of autographs I sign.”
