Actor Vikram, even after a two-decade stint in cinema, continues to be a bag of surprises; his roles and films often defying commercial diktats and popular expectations. Ever greedy for better roles, Vikram has never been in a hurry to sign films. Vikram says, “I’m not in a race, the passion for the craft drives me.” Instead he prefers to invest time in getting into the skin of his role. While in Hyderabad to launch the audio of his Inkokkadu ( Iru Mugan in Tamil), he’s confident that his first ever dual role will strike a chord with audiences. Excerpts from an interview:
You seem to prefer duality and layered characters.
That’s what I’ve always planned to do. I love playing roles with different shades, like the villain -- not the heavy, quintessential one who bows to the hero by the end of the film -- but like the ones in Hollywood, where they are equivalent to or sometimes, even more powerful than heroes. Inkokkadu came to me like that, it has two contrasting yet layered roles, Akilan and Love. Anand and I worked on the differences to an extent that I had to be another actor while I was doing Love.
How was it working with a one-film old director Anand Shankar?
When I watched the preview of his first film ( Arima Nambi, remade as Dynamite in Telugu), I literally asked him, ‘Are you sure this is your first film? Would you have any other story for me?’ He is full of ideas, his basic strength being his detailing, be it visuals, the art and the music. The film is new and yet not fundamental. It isn’t so out of the box, you’d love to appreciate its inner nuances and complexity equally.
What’s the reason behind unveiling the mysterious character (love) prior to its release?
If audiences go to Inkokkadu without knowing who played the character, by the time they bond with it, the film is more or less done. The decision to reveal ‘Love’ was to catch people by surprise early enough and give them a taste of what they can expect from the role.
The effeminate characterisation of Love and its treatment has created a buzz. What care have you taken to portray it?
When you see the film, you’ll realise that Love, who plays a doctor, is neither gay nor a transgender. You wouldn’t want to slot him in any particular category (he points his character in Pithamagan for instance who’s an anti-social). It’s just like an ‘A versus B’ clash. There’s no place in the film for me to exaggerate it, even when I say ‘Nuvvu Raja Nenu Rani’ in the trailer, it was just to get people curious.
In fact, Love wears a lot of designer stuff from Armaani suits to shades to the handbag, whereas Akilan is happy slipping into his shirt and jeans. The attempt was to break stereotypes from what we saw in films like Kanchana .
Why aren’t you considering more Telugu-Tamil bilinguals, given your popularity in both territories?
The dynamics don’t work out well enough. Aparichitudu , for instance, worked well in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, it didn’t matter that the audiences were watching a dubbed version. When you’re trying to simultaneously shoot, the nativity is bound to suffer somewhere, despite the money invested. The sensibilities in Chennai may not connect to a person watching it in Hyderabad. People will nevertheless watch Inkokkadu in the dubbed version; it has Nithya, Nasser, Nayanthara and me, whom they know well. I’m also happy Nithya and Nayanthara have starred in a film where they are more than ‘heroines’.
Would you like to move beyond acting sometime in future?
I’m loving the responsibility that I have as an actor. It’s always been a dream, I would want to continue to live that.
Beyond that, yes, I love photography, love the cinematographic process and would want to direct a film sometime too.
