The actor hints at having entered a fairly new section of his profession, one wherein the method issues him greater than the outcomes. “It’s now not only a job for me, and so I’ve began having fun with it. Every day, it’s thrilling to get up within the morning and stay up for that day’s shoot. More importantly, I’ve began having fun with the method of making a personality.”
This can be why Thanal may be the final time he performs a cop on display screen, having already donned the khaki in 100 and Trigger (and the net sequence Mathagam). “I like doing cop roles, and I really feel like a distinct particular person the second I put on the uniform. But, regardless that all three of my cop movies are drastically totally different, I discover it someway limiting me as an actor.”
Is it the physique language that males in uniform want to hold? “Yes, to a sure diploma, however I additionally wish to discover myself extra. I just lately did a movie referred to as Valai, which is but to be launched, and I play twin roles in it. One of the characters demanded I put on a wig, and I felt like a very totally different particular person; it wasn’t about trying totally different externally, but it surely was extra inner. There have been no boundaries set for me, and so I started to create my very own boundaries.”
Atharvaa in a nonetheless from ‘Thanal’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The actor says he will get a kick from collaborating with the director and discovering the character. “I feed off the director’s vitality now. So my director, for these 60 days of constructing a movie, is a part of my shut household circle. I desire speaking to my director every day, or a minimum of a number of days earlier than the shoot, in regards to the movie.” All actors should really feel restricted by the number of expressions and gestures that their face and physique permit them for a selected scenario. Being a director’s actor, Atharvaa isn’t too involved about that. “Let me provide you with an instance; in DNA, within the remaining sequence, I’m supposed to show in direction of a automobile and run at it in a break up second. Now, once I run, I’ve a sure manner of working…it’s my physique language. Director Nelson Venkatesan advised me, ‘No, it’s good to really feel helpless, it’s good to run like a father who misplaced his child. Imagine being in that scenario.’ So, whereas working, I didn’t increase my hand above chest degree to point out desperation, as if I have been pushing all the things apart and working in direction of one thing. So you want a director to anchor you,” he explains.
What if a shot/scenario reminds him of one thing comparable from a earlier title? Would he care about how in a different way he can pull it off? “No, as a result of the backstory issues. While performing a shot, they’ll inform me what occurs earlier than and after that shot within the script. So I don’t carry out for a shot however for the burden of what has occurred earlier than and what is going to occur subsequent. Moreover, I don’t have inventory expressions for feelings, and coming from the college of appearing I’m from, I can’t do this,” says the actor.
Would you do an motion movie excessive on violence like ‘Nobody’ and ‘John Wick’?
Atharvaa: “I’m fairly open to it. Very just lately, I heard a script like that, with out-and-out motion, and I fairly favored how they orchestrated the entire thing. So if the script calls for such violent motion and is well-made, then certain.”
Atharvaa’s earlier launch, DNA, garnered acclaim from the viewers. What stood out is his portrayal of a weak man battling grief and hopelessness. Of late, it’s refreshing to see actors like Atharvaa and Sivakarthikeyan break the notion that it’s not ‘heroic’ to point out vulnerability or play a personality battling psychological well being points. Atharvaa says this evolution is the necessity of the hour. “Firstly, it makes it simpler to connect with audiences, however extra importantly, folks are actually having fun with movies for the content material.”
With the director enjoying such a key function in his course of, Atharvaa says he has a manner of assessing whether or not debutants — like Ravindra Madhava, who helmed Thanal — might successfully translate their scripts to the display screen. “Whenever I meet somebody pitching a narrative, I attempt to perceive their method to cinema. In as we speak’s occasions, it’s not simply in regards to the script. I met Ravi and we spoke in regards to the movie, not as a narrative however as an idea. He had a imaginative and prescient. Ravi may be very certain about all the things, and when he isn’t, he’ll let you know. He doesn’t fake or placed on a facade.”
Atharvaa | Photo Credit: Johan Sathyadas/The Hindu
The distinction between working with a debutant and a longtime director, the actor provides, is that working with the previous can be extra of a collaboration. “Being actors, we don’t get too concerned within the director’s house,” which is to say there wouldn’t be any hand-holding, “as a result of a director is aware of his movie greater than I do. He has been with the script for 3 years. Just listening to a narration for these two hours doesn’t make me smarter. So if my director is assured, I shall be too.”
In Thanal, Atharvaa’s cop character takes on an ex-military man, performed by Ashwin Kakumanu. You marvel if Atharvaa can be eager on enjoying the opposite function, as a villain or anti-hero. “I’d like to. I’ve turn into extra attentive about my environment, so now my notion is that there are three worlds: the world that you simply’re , the world I see by my eyes, and the precise actuality. So the frequent level of the place you and I meet turns into actuality.” The reply piques your curiosity to understand how he applies this philosophy to cinema. “How do we all know who’s proper and who’s mistaken, or who is aware of issues and who doesn’t? Everyone is making an attempt to determine all the things out. That’s how I see it. Take this movie, as an illustration. Ashwin performs the destructive function in it. What my character does is true from the place he stands, however Ashwin’s character has his personal causes behind.”
Recently, director AR Murugadoss, in an interview, highlighted how Tamil cinema is dealing with a dearth of younger heroes. On the flipside, many trade pundits are questioning if there’s a deficit of content material for younger heroes, like Atharvaa. The actor, nevertheless, believes that content material and collaboration are all that matter as we speak. “Cinema is a enterprise on the finish of the day. I’ve began believing that you’re solely pretty much as good as your final Friday, and content material is king. Many movies that no person would have heard of have turn into blockbusters after launch. So, it’s now not in regards to the names, and collaboration is necessary. Everyone is looking out for administrators who’ve smart scripts. In as we speak’s world, in case you spot a director who’s smart, and is ready to execute his concept, he’s the subsequent huge factor tomorrow. It’s turn into like a 20-20 match, so it’s good to determine the type of content material,” he says.
Can you title a current movie that made you dream of doing one thing comparable?
“F1. I used to be blown away watching that movie. The technical points of how they pulled it off have been fairly fascinating. I’d like to do one thing like that, or Rush, which is one in every of my favorite movies.”
Up subsequent, Atharvaa is all able to tackle two pivotal initiatives. He shall be seen in Idhayam Murali, a movie titled after the well-known nickname of Atharvaa’s father, the late actor Murali. After that, he’ll get to shine on a much bigger canvas, in Sudha Kongara’s Parasakthi, co-starring Sivakarthikeyan and Ravi Mohan. He laughs it off when requested if he feels nervous in regards to the upcoming months. “I was anxious in my preliminary years. Now, I perceive that the method is extra necessary. Of course, there shall be some nervousness forward of the discharge, however proper now, each Idhayam Murali and Parasakthi are totally different in their very own manner. So it’s thrilling to modify between roles in a span of 1 month.”
As we log off, I ask him if he has reached the vacation spot he dreamt of as a child who made his movie debut in 2010. “I don’t suppose I’ll ever be the place I needed to be then, as a result of my ambitions preserve altering over time. We as people are by no means glad.” So what would he say to his youthful self? “Don’t take your self too severely. Many of us are inclined to suppose that wherever we’re is the world. But the world is such an enormous place. What we’re doing issues to us, however we want to consider whether or not it issues within the greater image. I continually step out of the field. Just a few years in the past, I took a break as a result of I needed to know the type of movies I needed to make. I began signing movies solely after I received that readability, and it has labored in my favour.”
Thanal releases in theatres this Friday
