If you don’t find Arun Vijay at home, you would probably find him at the gym.
Having grown up in a filmi family (he is the son of actor Vijayakumar), Arun has always felt that a great physique is one of the prerequisites for an actor.
“I’m very passionate about working out. I have taken several life decisions at the gym,” he says, adding, “Tomorrow, if a Shankar or Mani Ratnam calls me for an out-and-out action film, I can’t tell them, ‘Sir give me a few months.’ I should be ready immediately.”
He is currently getting feedback on the Prabhas-starrer Saaho, which released a couple of days ago. It is a first for him — doing a film in three languages (Tamil, Telugu and Hindi). But Arun took it up because it meant that he could hone his language skills.
“It was a challenge, since I am basically a ‘raghu thatha ’,” he laughs. “A pundit came from Mumbai to train me (in Hindi), especially the lines that have differences in ‘gha’ and ‘ga’. I had to learn by rote, something that I haven’t done even in school!” Saaho will open new windows of opportunity, he feels. “An actor shouldn’t have any language barriers. I think it will be a good start, for me to get recognised in other industries as well.”
Arun Vijay
Confidence is key
Arun Vijay started his film career way back in 1995 and did about 18 films till 2015 — some of which did well and some of which did not — when the Ajith-starrer Yennai Arindhaal happened.
As Victor, the film’s antagonist, the actor made filmmakers and audience take note of a ‘re-branded’ Arun Vijay. “I don’t feel that Victor was just an antagonist — there was love, betrayal and hatred in him. That character won because it was multi-shaded,” he says, adding, “My confidence level has increased tremendously since.”
“Not just in me, but in the audience too. It has also given me the responsibility to choose my projects more carefully,” he adds. So, after locking horns with a big star like Ajith, Arun went on to play a cop in Kuttram 23, a film that its director (Arivazhagan) had pitched to several stars previously. “It was the complete opposite, but I didn’t mind (doing the role),” he says.
Arun Vijay
The success of films like Kuttram 23 (2017) and Thadam (2019) meant that audiences were seeing a new, fresh Arun Vijay, who was by now tired of people looking at him as the “guy who could act well, but couldn’t scale greater heights, because of many factors.” His ‘re-branding’, the actor says, happened after months of thinking about what exactly was going wrong in his career.
“I realised that I was missing out on my core strength, and was trying to get influenced by what other people were telling me,” he recalls, about the time when he did films that didn’t exactly set the box-office on fire. So, he started to shake things up a little. He tried out romance in Thadaiyara Thaakka , which he always thought of as something he was not cut out for. In short, he became more daring.
Taking up Yennai Arindhaal was part of that new strategy. It was a risky decision, but he was clear that he needed a director like Gautham Menon to change things around.
“Slowly, I made sure that everything about me was different. I started changing every day because I needed to match Ajith’s presence on the big screen.” Arun now understands the significance of a filmmaker in not just shaping a film, but also in giving new meaning to an actor’s career. It also helped that Mani Ratnam invested in him for Chekkka Chivantha Vaanam (2018).
Arun Vijay in a promo still for ‘Mafia’
“My respect for them (filmmakers) has increased tremendously. They have such vision. When they narrate to me, I listen without interrupting. If I feel what they say is right for the film, I leave it.”
That’s why he is most excited about Boxer and Mafia ; the shoot of the latter was recently wrapped up. Mafia is directed by young filmmaker Karthick Naren, who had a fallout with Gautham Menon. Do these issues influence his film choices?
“Not at all,” he says, “As a creator, I could sense the pain he (Karthick Naren) would have gone through. He’s a bundle of talent, and he proved it with Dhuruvangal Pathinaru. When he came for the narration, he showed zero indication of the troubles he had gone through with respect to Naragasooran (Naren’s unreleased film produced by Menon). He walked in with so much confidence and freshness, and I loved that. Plus, he still has high regard for Gautham even today.” Arun heaps praise on Karthick, who, he says, has “the entire film edited in his mind”.
Apart from these two films, Arun is also set to start shooting for Agni Siragugal, which is directed by Naveen of Moodar Koodam fame. The biggest pressure for him today, he says, is “selecting the right script”.
“The pressure is while listening to the story only and ensuring the filmmaker has a good team to execute his vision. But once the script is locked, all I concentrate on is one thing: performance.”
