EXCLUSIVE! Vijay Sethupathi Gets Candid About His Moving Performance In Maharaja, Says 'When I Heard The Story, I Was Shaken'

Vijay Sethupathi’s  performance in his new Tamil  hit   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  rolemodel 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 100 crore film. See, every film I  choose like that(to be  a  success). Some films become a hit like this.Some films connect. 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.”

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. 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 .Otherwiseit 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.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. 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. 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 he feels similar disadvantaged when  speaking Hindi dialogues. “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 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 cooperate 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, says  Vijay,  got a delayed  release. “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. 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? “This 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.”