Luthfudeen Baasha tells me that since his debut in director A. L. Vijay’s Saivam , he has taken the time to study acting. He spent two weeks at an acting workshop in Pondicherry conducted by a performance company called Adishakti. He also spent time with N. K. Sharma of Act 1, a Delhi-based theatre group. All this information surprises me. He has Nasser for a father. Can acting training come from a better qualified person? “You should probably ask him about it,” he says, and throws me off guard by passing the phone to Nasser. “You see, the problem with trying to teach your child is that you never know when they will start arguing or when they will suddenly want a break. The connection is too personal, and it’s difficult to create a teacher-student relationship,” says Nasser. He also points out, in all modesty, that thanks to the workshops that his son has attended, he has learnt a couple of acting tips himself.
Luthfudeen has now done a role in Idhu Enna Maayam , another A. L. Vijay film. He hasn’t done any other films since Saivam owing to “personal commitments”. He explains his role in the just-released film with an Anniyan reference. “Remember how Ambi turns into Remo in that film? I undergo a similar transformation in this film.” Interestingly, Vijay’s original choice for the role wasn’t Luthfudeen. “He was visiting us once, and I told him about the acting workshops I had attended. He sensed that I was very keen to do films again, and offered me this role.” He remembers how he had to hide signing Saivam from Nasser. “He was shouting from the rooftops that actors must be trained, and right under his nose, his son, utterly untrained, had just signed a film. Thankfully though, he wasn’t livid as I expected him to be. But I’ve fulfilled my promise that I’d go through formal training in acting after I completed that film.”
However, his long-term plan is to turn filmmaker, and to that end, he views these roles as a kind of paid internship. “Let’s say I’m creatively building myself until I’m ready to make films.” So, for now, he’s happy to try and become more proficient as an actor. And yes, those training sessions came in handy, thank you very much. “I remember taking as many as 10 takes for many scenes in Saivam . This time, it was just three or four.”
