Vijay Sethupathi on Maharaja, “When I heard the story, I was shaken”

Vijay Sethupathi’s performance in his new Tamil hit in the form of Nithilan Swaminathan’s Maharaja is so tonally correct—he is a father who won’t grieve until justice is served—I cannot imagine how the timorous structure of the storytelling would have worked without him. In the way he internalizes his grief and the raging need for revenge, Sethupathi reminded me of Nicolas Cage in Panos Cosmatos’s Mandy. It is ironical that at a time when Sethupathi’s role model Kamal Haasan is exploring surface-level revenge stories, Sethupathi has gone so deep into the theme that I feared he may lose his way. He didn’t.

Vijay is overjoyed at the success of Maharaja. “Sir, my first Rs. 100 crores film. See, every film I choose like that (to be a success). Some films become a hit like this. Some films connect. Some emotions connect. We choose all the films with so much passion and with so much effort only we do, sir. When this subject came to me, I just loved it. I loved the non-linear writing. That attracted me. Because it was a surprise for me. So, the director said, ‘You listen to the script fully, then only you will enjoy it’. So, I was sitting and listening to the whole story,” he said.

Vijay was hesitant about accepting Maharaja as he had already committed himself to another project with a similar subject. “I was supposed to do one more film like this only,” he said. “So, I said, I already gave my word to one director. So, I told Nithilan, let me check whether if the other director is making that film. If he is then I can't do this film. The other director said, ‘I am not going to do that film’. He said so. Otherwise, it is not right. Because I liked that other script, then only I said okay to him na Sir. Whatever it may be, sir, we just wanted to tell an interesting story with the politically correct ethics. If anything comes, and if it convinces me, I will try to do that film, Sir. But I am not expecting many films Maharaja. I would hope that it happens more often, such films should happen more often. They are a reflection of society in the truest and the rawest sense.”

About the theme of child rape, Vijay admits he was disturbed. “Sir, 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 do it, we just try to understand what are the emotions in the shot. Then we do it, Sir. When I do it, how do I communicate it? Out of expression, out of silence. So, it's just in my mind,” said the actor.

Vijay continued, “I’ve always believed that for an actor, silences always speak louder than words. At least it’s true of me. I always feel the words come in the way of expressing the feelings. I am at my most expressive when I am not speaking. In a forthcoming film Gandhi Talks, I don’t know talk at all. It is a silent film. Actually, when I was telling the third story to the cops, I broke down. The first two times when I was telling the story, I didn't lose control. But third time when I got that image, the tears were real. It was not... This shouldn’t happen to anyone.”

Vijay is all praise for Anurag Kashyap who plays the antagonist. “Sir, he did great job, sir,” he said. “Yes, he did. He actually got injured when he fell down the stairs in the climax. Which means pain was there. But when we did the climax, he was so happy that he got injured. He was saying, ‘Now that I'm crawling, I can use only my one hand. Otherwise, I would have used both my hands.’ So not bothering about your own physical hurt…. Because he's a director, he understands these things. ‘Because I got injured here, so that I can use my only one hand.’ So that way of approach, that's a great thing. It is a great thing.”

He added, “And then in the last minute only, he came up with the dialogue, Sir. Because he kept on changing the dialogue. He rewrites always. He worked very hard. He didn't understand a single word of the dialogues in Tamil. Then I tried to help a little. I understood his difficulty, Sir, when it's time to say Hindi dialogue. I have to read it for a long time. Because it's not my native language. So my breath pattern is not for Hindi. Breath pattern is for my mother tongue. Everybody has it, no? Your breath pattern is based on your language.”

Vijay admits that he feels similar disadvantaged when speaking Hindi dialogues. He said, “If I read my Hindi dialogues 100-200 times, so that I get that breath pattern for saying Hindi dialogue. Suppose if I speak my dialogues in Telugu or Marathi, I’ve to read the dialogues over and over again, so that I get that breath pattern. But Anurag kept on changing the words so he could get the emotion of the scene. It was very difficult. But he did it. He understood it. So being a director, he could understand the script better than a mere actor like me.”

“Because our director Nithilan Swaminathan had so much respect for Anurag Kashyap, what happened was, Nithilan came in the middle of a shot when Anurag was about to fall down the stairs,” he said. “He loved and he respected Anurag sir so much. So, he came in the middle and he said, ‘Don't do this’. But Anurag insisted on doing a real fall. Anurag was very sincere and he was very supportive. Not only Anurag, everybody around me. Combined. Yeah, it's everybody. So when we are in the frame, we have to very cooperative with our co-actors. Otherwise, the energy, the timing won't match. If I just wanted to show myself as an actor .... I want my co-actors, whether they are big or small, I want them to be comfortable. And it works.”

Maharaja, said Vijay, got a delayed release. He revealed, “Sir, we completed Maharaja last year November. We were delayed because of the elections. Release date is most important, Sir. We couldn’t release it with Kalki 2898 AD. We couldn’t release it with bigger films. So, we didn’t get theatres. We've been waiting for release, sir. Four months waiting for the release, sir. Give your best shot. Do your most sincere work. Be the best version of yourself on screen. And then leave the rest to whatever you want to call it. Destiny, God or whatever.”

Vijay’s next? “There is Viduthalai Part 2 is. In a few days we are releasing a new poster. Viduthalai means freedom. We are releasing it October-November. That’s the plan.”

Also Read: Vijay Sethupathi’s Maharaja scores closing night spot at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles

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