Tamil actor Vijay Sethupathi has achieved fame for brilliantly portraying negative roles in movies, and will appear as a mysterious character opposite Katrina Kaif in Merry Christmas, scheduled for release on Jan 12.
However, in a recent interview with Pinkvilla, the 45-year-old revealed that he was tired of playing the villain.
“I thought playing a villain gives (actors) so much freedom. You can have fun with the role – because it’s not something you can be in real life,” he said.
“But slowly, I couldn’t handle it. I got a little confused. Many people began approaching me to do villain roles, and it became an emotional block.
“I decided to stop and relax. Later, I will decide if I really want to do it again.”
In Merry Christmas, directed by Sriram Raghavan, Sethupathi plays the hero. The film, made simultaneously in Hindi and Tamil, also stars Tinnu Anand, Sanjay Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Pratima Kannan, Radhika Apte and Ashwini Kalsekar.
The trailer reveals that the story unfolds on Christmas Eve. Katrina and Sethupathi decide to spend the evening together, and then the night takes a dark and ominous turn.
Raghavan said he initially considered Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan for the role, but opted for Sethupathi because the Tamil actor was proficient in Hindi. He also wanted a fresh pairing.
Sethupathi told The Indian Express he didn’t speak much with Katrina during filming because he was “afraid” of her.
“I am new to (Bollywood). She is well experienced; a big star here,” he said.
But the pair reportedly had good chemistry on set.
In another interview with Mashable India, Sethupathi opened up about his initial days in the Tamil film industry.
“My story is very short,” he said. “I needed to support my family and took up a job as an accountant in a cement distribution company in Chennai.
“Then, between 2000 and 2003, I went to Dubai to work. I came back to Chennai, got married to Jessie (with whom he has two children) and started an interior decoration business, which bombed.
“I was very shy and an introvert. I decided to take up acting as a career to kill my shy nature.”
He found a job as an accountant in a theatre company called Koothu-P-Pattarai, where he started observing the making of plays and the magic of theatre enchanted him.
“I had no real ambitions or direction in life,” Sethupathi said. “All I wanted was to build a home, own a car and have the ability to repay loans faster.
“I didn’t think there was more to life than that.”
So, when someone told him he could earn up to Rs5,000 ($80) a day acting in teleserials, he decided to give it a shot.
In retrospect, Sethupathi said that had he known about the struggles in making it big in the film industry, fear would have probably deterred him from trying.
“Sometimes, innocence is a blessing,” he said. “I did not know anything about films or acting. And that became my strength.”
Not much is known about Merry Christmas, as the makers have revealed very little about the film. But going by the trailer, Raghavan appears to have put his signature spin on the traditional structure of romance, as suspense, seduction and surprise await the audience.
Sethupathi believes it is a refreshing movie, and bound to impress the audience.
Indo-Asian News Service
