In his early 40s, Vijay Antony has completed nine films in the Tamil industry.
I wonder aloud if the thought of staying relevant, what with the increased competition, bothers him?
“Let me put it to you this way,” he begins. “You’re a reporter. There must be at least 15-20 reporters who work alongside you in office. If you choose to start thinking how to stay relevant in that group, would you be able to enjoy a day of work?”
We connect over phone because the actor is in Kolkata — where he will be stationed for at least a month — shooting for Agni Siragugal , that co-stars Arun Vijay.
“There’s a final schedule left and we’ll be heading to Europe for that,” he continues.
After changing lanes
Antony’s 10th film, Kolaigaran , has been scheduled for an April-May release. He is concurrently shooting for Thamilarasan and will soon begin work on two projects - Khaki with Senthil Kumar and an untitled project with Metro director Ananda Krishnan, where he is rumoured to play a politician.
As he lists his projects, it is easy to forget the actor’s earlier avatar as sound engineer and music director. And that is exactly what he wants you to do.
- While Vijay Antony no longer wants to be known as music composer, he says he is keen to make an exception for Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vijay or Ajith Kumar.
“Actually, my career as a music director turned out to be a disappointment. I believed I gave good songs but the response and recognition from the industry was not great. I was depressed, I felt insecure about all this and, at some point, started worrying if I can keep making money,” he says.
Coming from a man who had no proper training in music, but who then went on to give us foot-thumping tracks (remember ‘Naaka Mukka’, ‘Aathichudi’?), this seems strange.
Vijay Antony
Weren’t those songs evidence enough of a person with remarkable confidence? “Yes, but you see, I am intelligent. I could notice what was happening around me,” he is quick to retort.
“All I can say is I’m happy now. I’m doing something new and I can’t say if I would have been at this level of happiness had I stuck to making music.”
Happiness breeds confidence, and Antony seems to have buckets of it now. He shares his understanding of the whys of a film’s success or failure; it is the former he has tasted more often.
“If my film fails, I never think it was because the script was weak. If that thought creeps in, I’ll grow paranoid about [choosing] scripts. I would lose trust in my own judgement. That’s when things get complicated,” Antony says.
Vijay Antony (right) with actor Arjun Sarja on the sets of Kolaigaran
Not having to convince distributors, on the one hand, and letting go of responsibilities of being his film’s ‘producer’ have allowed him room to grow.
“Even technicians on set would hesitate to interact with me freely because, to their eyes, I was still the producer.”
- Vijay Antony says he was an average student in school. “I was always ranked last in my class. My problem was that I would obtain a just pass and move on to the next class!” He pursued a B.Sc. Physics degree in college and racked up “21 arrears out of his 24 subjects.”
It is 11 pm and I gather that Antony has just reached his room from the sets, to retire for the night. A voice interrupts, and the actor is reminded that he has to resume shoot at 4.30 am the next day. It can’t be easy, I observe.
“It is hard work,” he agrees, “But that’s what I have banked on. Even if I was running an idli shop for a living, I know that my idlis will taste good because that’s how highly I rate my work ethic.”
And on the heels of that analogy … “I don’t know what I meant to say there, where have I gone now!”
