When I meet Vijay Sethupathi at Prasad Studios in Chennai, he’s wrapping up a day of filming for Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s Pocket Novel. It is 6pm and the actor hasn’t had lunch but. His crew is milling round, serving to him get out of make up and in his caravan, I discover a set of weights, a keyboard, and a stack of neatly organized books. This is the actor in his pure habitat — a performer who has averaged a minimum of 4 releases a 12 months for over a decade.
He will likely be making his Tamil web-series debut later this month with Muthu Engira Kaattaan on JioHotstar, reuniting with buddy and collaborator M Manikandan, who beforehand directed him in Aandavan Kattalai and Kadaisi Vivasayi. Manikandan is credited because the creator of the collection, and shares path credit with B Ajith Kumar.
Vijay Sethupathi In ‘Muthu Engira Kaattaan’
| Photo Credit:
JioHotstar
“This story sort of healed me,” Sethupathi says. He harkens again to a time when he felt caught after the pandemic, and brings up one thing he learnt by Distance Healing. “I was told then that we are not clouds, but the sky. Clouds are something that simply come and go in our lives. When I read the script of Kaattaan, I felt like the clouds in my life cleared and I was able to see the sky. It cleansed me,” he displays.
A noir-folk thriller, the online collection unfolds in a sleepy village whose inhabitants are rattled when a severed human head is found. We observe two policemen trying to unravel the identification behind it. The first two episodes, a implausible coming collectively of darkish comedy, absurd humour, and a police procedural, maintain us guessing; who actually was Muthu?
“I do not set out to do something with the mindset that it is going to be ‘amazing’. It feels egoistic to me,” says the actor, when requested if he feels any stress to ship one thing path-breaking but once more with Manikandan. “This is not what someone should be thinking of, especially while pursuing art. I am just doing my job, and what is important is to do it wholeheartedly,” he says whereas acknowledging the consolation of working with frequent collaborators like, Manikandan or Thiagarajan Kumararaja, with whom he labored earlier in Super Deluxe (2019). “There is freedom… I can talk openly, have discussions, and I know I will not be judged,” he provides.
Vijay Sethupathi as Shilpa in Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s ‘Super Deluxe’, a job which gained him the National Award
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Special Arrangement
Beginning his appearing profession with Chennai based mostly theatre group, Koothu-P-Pattarai, Vijay Sethupathi went on to star in a number of quick movies, a Tamil TV serial, and performed supporting roles in motion pictures earlier than his massive break because the lead in Karthik Subbaraj’s Pizza. A 2020 profile of his in The Hindu dubbed him the face of a brand new wave in Tamil cinema, the place his fixed want for re-invention helped set him other than his friends. He has performed the protagonist, the antagonist, dabbled in genres throughout the spectrum, and was additionally final seen within the silent movie Gandhi Talks.
“Short films, TV shows, films or even web series — the format can be anything, but the audience should not be bored. They should find it fascinating. A project, irrespective of the format, has to excite me as well. Acting is the only job I know, and there really is no formula I follow to be different or anything else,” he says.
For him, a day on the set is sort of a puzzle. “When you walk in, you know what the scene is, but you don’t know how you are going to do it. When we unlock this puzzle, there is a sense of comfort, an achievement of sorts. It feels like finally being able to make an angry girlfriend laugh, after trying hard to impress her,” he laughs.
During the dialog, I deliver up how his filmography includes a contact of romance and slice-of-life, significantly in Aandavan Kattalai (2016) and Kaadhalum Kadandhu Pogum (2016). “Do you know today marks 10 years since Kaadhalum Kadandhu Pogum was released?” he asks. We focus on the movie, and the way it continues to be celebrated amongst cinephiles, for the way it tackles companionship, camaraderie, and the underlying romance of all of it. Aandavan Kattalai too, he factors out, had a candy, delicate romance that slowly comes collectively in the long run, one thing that he beloved concerning the movie.
The actor with Trisha in ‘96’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
“I have done so many love stories, and however many I do, or everyone does…theeradhadhu andha kaadhal dhaan (Love is seemingly endless),” he says, waxing lyrical about his love for the style. He factors out the number of love tales in his filmography, proper from Soodhu Kavvum (2013), the place he falls in love with a girl from his creativeness, and Idharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara (2013), the place he’s head over heels for his neighbour, to the hard-hitting Ka Pae Ranasingham (2020), a couple of spouse struggling to deliver again her husband’s physique from overseas, the absurd comedy Naanum Rowdy Dhaan (2015), and the smash-hit 96 (2018).
As the pan-Indian cinema frenzy continues within the nation, Sethupathi isn’t any stranger to it as effectively, having starred within the blockbuster movie Jawan(2023) alongside Shah Rukh Khan. “The progression to making pan-Indian films feels natural, and it is something that I welcome. Of course, there will be some complaints, but isn’t it a good thing when a film becomes a film for everyone, and gets celebrated by all?” he asks. “To me, it feels like a cultural exchange,” he states.
The actor brings up the instance of his personal movie Maharaja (2024), one which loved industrial success throughout the nation, and in addition broke information in China. “We might think people see a film only for the story, but there is so much more they must have observed, Our homes, food, relationships, economic status, transport, education…it isn’t just a story that transcends borders, but the film also serves as a documentation of life and culture of the era we are in,” he explains.
He remembers one thing that filmmaker SP Jananathan, who directed him in Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai (2015) and Laabam (2021), believed in. “He always said cinema isn’t just entertainment; it educates us in many ways. I believe that too. It’s not just about claps and whistles, it depends on what you take away from a film. If one crore people watch it, at least 10 will carry something from it in the form of a lyric that moved them, or the spark to become a doctor, a scientist, or even joining the Army. A two-and-a-half-hour film can plant many such seeds,” he says.
Vijay Sethupathi in ‘Maharaja’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
At this level in his profession, with over 50 movies and counting, I ask him what does success imply to him.
“How a film runs is what success is,” he places it merely. “We truly work so hard, and there are so many people on set deeply invested in the film’s success. People assume that if a film runs well, the actors are the ones enjoying all of it. There is a producer, there are people selling popcorn in theatres and most importantly, there are other actors who have played smaller roles,” he says.
Having performed a number of supporting roles in movies earlier than his massive break as a lead actor, he dwells on this. “For actors who have done small roles, starring in a film that does well becomes a marker of sorts. It creates an identity. We can write the name of these films behind the photos we hand out. And we can move forward for better roles,” the actor provides. “It is good for everyone when a film does well. Everyone benefitting will pay tax as well and it is good for the government too,” he chuckles.
While Muthu Engira Kaattaan is ready to launch on March 27, Sethupathi has a slew of movies arising as effectively. “I look forward to everything I am working on. Why will I work on projects that do not excite me?” he asks. “Puri Jagannadh’s Slum Dog- 33 Temple Road is a script which excited me. I am also doing Balaji Tharaneedharan’s next, Mani(Ratnam) sir’s next as well as the second season of Farzi, and of course, Pocket Novel,” he says, including, “It is due to my stories and my directors that my work blossoms beautifully. If I am not excited, I simply cannot work.”
Muthu Engira Kaattaan will likely be out there to stream on JioHotstar from March 27
