A couple of years ago, when director Ragava sent Arya a photograph of Hanuman, the actor was puzzled. “Did you send it to me by mistake?” he texted the filmmaker.
But it was no error. The photograph was meant to be a reference for the actor, to get into shape for Kadamban .
“Some scripts are complete… in the sense that there are action sequences built into it. I found Kadamban to be like that. The heroism was so natural,” he says.
But, getting into shape wasn’t easy. It was a film that required him to sport a six-pack–something that was the result of several fitness sessions. “I looked at it as a huge opportunity. I started working on the six-pack only after listening to the script. This was a film in which I could show it off from the first frame to the last,” he says.
When he singed the film, he didn’t worry too much about the logistics of shooting in the forests. But when the team landed there, it was tough going for Arya. “The biggest problem was shooting without footwear. During the fight sequences, I had to run barefoot–and despite all the clearing, you still get hurt. There was not a single day without bloodshed on location.”
An elephantine task
What made it worth it was the fact that he got to spend time with elephants, which play a major role in the film. “Their behaviour is unpredictable, despite the training,” he says. That’s exactly why it was a huge task to film the climax that features a herd of 70 elephants. “It must have been unnatural for them, as they usually travel in smaller herds,” he says, his mind going back to that day, “Initially, the elephants used to be afraid of the cameras and the jimmy-jibs. But as we trained, they almost behaved like normal actors–sometimes even ducking to avoid the jimmy-jib.”
He speaks of the shoot in a lighter vein now, but the essential aim was to take the subject beyond just visual grandeur. The film is, as he puts it, about the emotion between the forests and the people who live in them. “When we destroy a forest, we don’t think about the real value it offers. It is an unaddressed issue that we’ve tried to throw light on,” he says pensively.
Breaking an image
These are the words of an actor who has consciously tried to go beyond the ‘carefree’ image that audiences have of him. Is this Arya maturing? “I try to do that in every film. When I look back at my earlier works, I sometimes realise how I’m giving the same reaction every time. In Kadamban, I’m happy to say that my performance will be mature and strong.” The stills and trailer certainly suggest so. Even his look was zeroed in on after the sketching artist submitted 15 options.
Up next is Santhana Devan, a rural period drama that will focus on jallikattu. “It’ll have Ameer’s stamp on it,” he says, heaping praise on the filmmaker who made Raam and Paruthiveeran .
