When director Hariharan met actor Vivek for the first time, the latter hadn’t made his debut in cinema.
“Vivek was popular those days, back in the 1980’s, as a stand-up comedian on stage and I was introduced to him by Dr. V.P. Sidhan, the founder of Medimix,” Hariharan told The Hindu on Saturday.
“He had performed at a function organised by Dr. Sidhan. After watching him on that evening, I wasn’t surprised to see him become a successful actor in cinema.”
Film director Hariharan
Vivek’s untimely death, at the age of 59 of cardiac arrest on Saturday, is a personal loss for Hariharan, director of some of the iconic films in Malayalam like Parinayam, Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha and Panchagni . He was planning to cast the actor, who excelled in comic roles in Tamil cinema in a four-decade long career, in his new film, Kunchan Nambia r, the biopic on the legendary poet and performing artiste.
“Vivek had told me several times that he wanted to act in a Malayalam film directed by me,” Hariharan said. “Somehow nothing worked out. When I told him that he would be part of Kunchan Nambiar , he was very excited and said that he would accept the role unconditionally.”
Hariharan said that he had followed Vivek’s career closely. “He was very talented and he wasn’t good just at comedy, though he had been typecast in such roles,” he said. “He could have done so much more.”
Vivek became a familiar face for Malayalis after starring in a television ad for Medimix in early 1990s. Actor and singer Krishnachandran had dubbed for him.
“I have known him from his early days as an actor,” said Krishnachandran. “We had acted in a Tamil film together, but it was music that brought us close.”
He said Vivek had deep knowledge in music. “He used to play piano well,” he said. “And he was a great fan of Ilaiyaraja’s music.”
