'When I Heard The Story, I Was Shaken'

'How could anyone do this to a child?'
'And how can a father cope with such a trauma?'
'But then we actors have to rise above personal emotions.'

Vijay Sethupathi perfects yet another performance in Nithilan Swaminathan's Tamil hit Maharaja.

He plays a father, whose daughter goes missing, but he refuses to grieve until justice is served.

Vijay is overjoyed by the film's success.

"My first Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) film," he announces to Subhash K Jha.

"See, every film I choose like that (to be a success). Some films become a hit, some films connect, some emotions connect.

"We choose films with so much passion and do them with so much effort. When this subject came to me, I loved it. I loved the non-linear writing because it was a surprise for me. The director said, listen to the script fully, only then you will enjoy it. So I sat and listened to the whole story."

Vijay was hesitant about accepting Maharaja as he had already committed himself to another project with a similar subject.

"I told Nithilan I had already given my word to another director. I said, let me check whether he's making that film. If he is, I can't do this film. But that director said he wasn't going to do the film.

"We wanted to tell an interesting story with politically correct ethics. I am not expecting many films like Maharaja though such films should happen more often. They are a reflection of society in the truest and rawest sense," he says.

Vijay admits he was disturbed about the theme of child rape.

"When I heard the story, I was shaken. How could anyone do this to a child? And how can a father cope with such a trauma? But then we actors have to rise above personal emotions.

"We try to understand what the emotions are, and then we do it. How do I communicate it? With expression and silence. I have always believed that an actor's silence speaks louder than his words. At least that's true of me. I feel words come in the way of expressing feelings. I am at my most expressive when I am not speaking.

"Actually, when I was telling the story to the cops for the third time, I break down. The first two times, I don't lose control. But during the third time, I get that image. The tears were real. This should not happen to anyone."

Vijay is all praise for Anurag Kashyap, who plays the antagonist.

"He did a great job! He actually got injured when he fell down the stairs in the climax.

"He said, because of his fall, he could use only one hand, otherwise he would have used both. Because he's a director, he understands these things. That approach is a great thing.

"And then, in the last minute, he came up with the dialogue because he kept changing it. He always rewrites. He didn't understand the dialogues in Tamil, and I tried to help."

Vijay admits he feels a similar disadvantage when he says Hindi dialogues.

"Only if I read my Hindi dialogues 100-200 times, I get that breath pattern that I do when I speak in my native tongue.

"Anurag kept changing the words to get the emotion of the scene. Being a director, he could understand the script better than an actor like me.

"What happened was, Anurag was to fall down the stairs. But Nithilan asked him not to because he respected Anurag sir so much. But Anurag insisted on doing a real fall.

"Anurag was very sincere. Not only him, everybody around me. When we are in the frame, we have to cooperate with our co-actors or else the energy and timing won't match."

Maharaja, says Vijay, got a delayed release. "We completed Maharaja last November. It got delayed because of the elections. And then, we couldn't release it with Kalki. We have been waiting for four months to release."

Vijay Sethupathi will be seen next in Viduthalai Part 2.

"Viduthalai means freedom. We are releasing it October-November," he says.