For that role of a lifetime

Aspiring actors gather at an audition in Coimbatore and share their dreams with Parshathy J. Nath

For the love of cinema: Participants performing at the auditions. Photos: K. Ananthan

The door of the audition room opens. A voice from inside announces: “You get 30 seconds to perform.” The aspiring actors crack their knuckles, while a few others pace across the hall. Says 26-year-old Venkateshwaran M., “I will do romance. I am good at it.” His friend Raja has chosen a melodramatic scene, “since it covers all shades of emotions.”

The Montage Media Production, a film production house in Singanallur, bustles with actors, students, and models, participating in the auditions for Yakkai, directed by Kulandai Velappan.

Venkateshwaran is an English teacher, who transforms into the VJ of

Polymer channel at nights. He says cinema has always been his passion. “I always wanted to be a hero. The teaching job is just for the money. I became a VJ in the hope of getting a break in films.”

He has already acted in a few ads and short films. But, he has struggled in the process. “Film agents can be rude. They say they will turn us into stars overnight. We blindly trust them out of our desperation. But, they treat us badly. I tolerated their insults just out of my love for movies.”

Another participant, Raja, chucked his job in the Merchant Navy to become an actor.

“I was fed up. I used to watch films while I was on sea,” he laughs. He came back home and joined Koothu-P-Pattarai, a Chennai based Tamil theatre group, which has names such as Nasser, Pasupathi and Vijay Sethupathi associated with it.

But joining the troupe was never easy. “Whenever I called them, they would say that admissions are closed. I kept at it and finally they asked me to join. It was a strict regime. I was trained in yoga, meditation and theatre.” Soon he got calls for ads and feature films. But, Raja’s aim is to become a film maker. “All these efforts are to direct a film of my own,” he says.

Inside the audition room, Kulandai and his assistants have taken a break. The film, starring Prakash Raj, Swathi Reddy and Kreshna, is set in Coimbatore, says the director who also hails from the city. “I wanted fresh faces because I want the film to be realistic. I want the audience to see and feel Coimbatore and its diction through these fresh faces.”

Kulandai sees himself in these bright young faces. Ten years ago, he too waited, hoping to direct his film. He boarded a bus to Chennai after college. He had no place to stay there. He slept among vegetables in Koyambedu market for 18 days before he moved into his friends’ place. “In my passion for film making I forgot about basic survival,” he says.

In Jigarthanda , the hero who aspires to be a director stays with his friend in Madurai and the two brain-storm the story. They are not different from the young film makers in Chennai. Says Kamalakannan, director of Madhubanakkadai and the creative head of Montage, “Directors such as Karthik Subbaraj, Nalan Kumarasamy and I send each other the draft of our scripts. We work without ego. Our primary concern is that the film should be good.”

Tamil cinema is in the hands of young film makers now, says Kamalakannan. “Could we even think of making a film like Soodhu Kavvum or Naduvile Konjam Pakkathe Kaanum , three years ago? Today with digital technology, film making has become easy and affordable.”

The independent film scene in Coimbatore is also picking up, he says. “Earlier only visual communication students made films. Now, even engineering students are into it. Colleges now include short film-making contests for cultural fests.”

In a step to encourage more young film makers, Montage is planning to guide them about releasing, marketing and distribution of films, he says. “Most of them are good filmmakers but do not know to market their films. We will connect them with the right people in the industry.”

Outside, more participants queue up. Sidharth Varma, a former journalist and a theatre professional, has come all the way from Chennai. He is a theatre professional, too. It is not his first audition, he says. “One must not go with any plans. Once, I went prepared thinking that I will use the chair inside the room as a prop. But, then there was no chair and the room was all dark. I had to sit on the ground and act!”

And, he holds no false hopes about the results of the audition. He is realistic about how the film world functions. “There are a million people out there. And there is just one role. Nothing is written for you. It depends on your talent and also a lot on your luck.”

(The auditions are on at Montage Media Production, Singanallur till November 29, between 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. For details, call 0422-4218161)