Magnum opus star R. Sarathkumar, who has once again proved why he’s called the King of Tamil cinemas with Por Thozil, gets candid with The Pioneer about his formative days, working on the film, and more.
SHIKHA DUGGAL
The magnum-opus star, R. Sarathkumar, just didn’t try his luck in Tamil films; he trounced them. He was given a ticket by the political party and today he’s one of the most prominent politicians of our country, still he didn’t stopped having his feelings to be a part of cinema. That’s how he’s landed with another very large project called Por Thozil, that’s being lifting the hats of popular critics in our country, calling the film to be one of the brilliant investigative thrillers. Such a big star in his time and now, it was only our privilege to interact with originally a bodybuilder! There are many more bewildering facts coming up, so stay tuned with us in this tollywood interview.
“My father used to be working for All India Radio; he was a Tamil news reader, so I was born in Delhi and not in Tamil Nadu. It was only after my fifth grade that he was transferred to Chennai, and that’s where my Tamil roots started to nurture. What makes Delhi more fonder and closer to me now is the time when I returned to my birth-place as a member of parliament,” shares the actor, who has donned the hat of a journalist like us for a quiet few months.
Continuing to share tidbits about his latest movie, he described, “The senior officer that I was asked to play just didn’t have to finish his cop duties and go back to home — he’s dealing with some personal issues as well. He is a no-nonsense man, so am I in real life! These feelings of practicality and not used to taking favours pulled me to the role. And, the fact that he’s meticulous just like me in real life! Very few IAS officers are spotted these days working their way up totally on their own when working on a case, I questioned this on the sets. I know many sensible senior officers and that’s where my inferences lies from. The realistic portrayal! I just didn’t want to look bonny wearing the uniform, had the intention to slog hard.”
Little do you know that the king of Tamil cinema’s actual career started as a newspaper boy, delivering newspapers on the streets of Bangalore. Can you imagine? Though he was a mathematics graduate! The publication instructed him that he’d be taking care of the circulation, and he started to visualise it as something like a plump job sitting at the desk, but nah, it wasn’t anything like this. After a while, he spoke to the chairperson of the publications, thinking he had the ability to have journalistic sensibilities, and started reporting from the same city. That’s how he turned into a journalist like us! What a glorious curve! He still didn’t stop doing those odd jobs, in between he was repairing cycles also! All because he wanted more money to produce films to end up in the film line.
“For Por Thozil, we shot continuously for thirty-six nights. Both Ashok and I were feeling so grilled. Those scenes were crucial, so I went with the director’s approach. I do have disturbing scenes in the movie; having said that, I remember leaving Delhi and my father going through his personal issues. The transfer came as a sigh of relief to him, but something was wrong, which he has never explained to us to date. That’s the only moment that makes me recall some disturbing moment of life otherwise I was given a very safe and secure childhood. Whenever we go back to Karolbagh, most of the people from those times remembers my father and shower so much love on me,” shared Samajamlo Sthree fame. This is the movie that marked the onset of his acting career—the Telugu movie!
Before this, he had a time in his life when he went about knocking on the doors of leading producers, and they assumed he was filthy rich. Sarathkumar claims that was the only reason for them to be in touch with him and give him a chance to atleast have a discussion on a phone call, otherwise, the industry doesn’t work like this as we all know. The idea he took for granted to become an actor was that he will have to invest in movies to become one. That was worrisome to him, he said! But that’s how the producers were looking to extract from him.
“If I did a thriller movie today, I was sure to not familiarise myself with foreign films. Closer home, find the ultimate motive! I didn’t get any time to have an ice-breaking session also with my co-actor because what was going on in our minds was that a serial killer was on the loose. So as a seasoned actor, I immediately like to get into the groove without wasting any time. After a few scenes, Ashok and I started to interact, and I realised he was really into my daily routine activities. Looking at my healthy eating habits, he started to feel guilty on sets about what I was eating before a senior actor (he laughed). It was funny to me that he wanted to change his habits because of me. He’s a good person to bond with.”
