British actor Daniel Caltagirone will make his Tamil film debut with Pa Ranjith’s Thangalaan, which releases on Aug 15.
Caltagirone, well-known for his roles in Adrien Brody’s Oscar-winning film The Pianist and Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, initially thought that the shoot would be over in three months.
“Then it became a bigger vision for Ranjith, and I just went along for the ride,” he told The Hindu.
“I realised quickly it was not the kind of role white actors in Bollywood films would do. I also learnt that my part was almost a parallel lead to Vikram’s. In the end, I spent close to a year in India for the shoot.”
Thangalaan, starring actors Vikram, Malavika Mohanan and Parvathy Thiruvothu tells the story of a fierce tribal leader during the British Raj, who sets out to stop a sorceress amid searching for gold in the village mines.
“I’m not an expert on Indian cinema, but every time I tuned in to an Indian film and there was a British actor, I would laugh out loud at the bad acting, or how the role would be so cliched,” said Caltagirone.
“But I was impressed by the research the Thangalaan team had done on me. They knew what exactly I could do and what they wanted from me.”
The actor admitted that it took him a few days to settle down on the set.
“I’m more of a naturalistic actor, but Ranjith wanted something more, which I found to be over-the-top. We had a lot of back and forth and I was getting frustrated. But then one day, he made me look at the monitor where I noticed my acting was not registering among the other actors’ heightened acting. Something clicked that day and I was able to up the ante.”
Daniel added that for the first time in his career he jumped into a project solely based on faith in the director.
“I went on this journey by improvising based on the scene outlines provided by Pa Ranjith,” the actor said. “He convinced me to do this film with his vision.
“I just got lucky because I had amazing co-stars. Parvathy is a brilliant actor, while I just clicked immediately with Malavika. Vikram and I became very close; he liked my style and I respect and like how he worked. Apart from having a great working relationship, they were also able to guide me and help me because of the different methodologies.”
Daniel told the Hindustan times that the film was one of the toughest jobs he’s done, but also “one of the most special”.
“India is often associated with Bollywood, but it’s so much more than that,” he said. “The Tamil film industry is gaining recognition in India, and I feel privileged to be a part of that.”
