From being a TV anchor and impressing the audience with his humour to making his foray into cinema as the boy-next-door in Marina to becoming the leading star with Don, Sivkarthikeyan’s story is the stuff of dreams. With back-to-back hits — Doctor and Don — Siva is currently one of the most bankable heroes of Kodambakkam. In a recent media interaction, Sivakarthikeyan came across not just as a hero on a good streak, but as a brilliant strategist. Sample this. When asked if it isn’t a risk to work with a Telugu director for a Tamil film, Siva says, “I don’t look at it as a risk but rather as a challenge. A Tamil hero and a Telugu director, if we pull it off correctly, and if it works, then it is a success for both industries. Then we would get a lot of options. There will be ten more directors from there, they will get more heroes from here.”
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Growing up in Trichy, Sivakarthikeyan has watched all the Diwali releases with friends, and he is visibly excited that his film Prince is releasing for the festive season. Directed by Anudeep of Jaathi Ratnalu fame, Prince has an interesting premise about a Tamil teacher from Cuddalore falling in love with a Brit teacher from Pondicherry. Maria Ryaboshapka, a Ukrainian actress, is playing the role of the English teacher. Maria isn’t good with Tamil or English but it wasn’t a problem, according to the hero. “Her mother tongue is Ukrainian. She converted all the dialogues with pronunciations to her language – similar to many heroines here. So, it was not that difficult. Her lip sync in the film is very good. She has put in a lot of effort for it.”
Though Prince is touted to be a Tamil-Telugu bilingual, Sivakarthikeyan reveals that the film is an out-and-out Tamil movie, which was dubbed in Telugu. “Since, it is a full-fledged comedy, we wanted to focus on one language. The only advantage it has in the Telugu market is that the director’s mother tongue is Telugu. So, he wrote the dialogues in a way it is easy to use the film in both the languages,” he reveals.
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The humour in director Anudeep’s Jaathi Rathnalu is a bit distinct from that of typical comedy dramas of Tamil. When probed whether that would land well in Tamil, Sivakarthikeyan sounds optimistic. “Prince retains the flavour of Jaathi Ratnaalu. That sense of humour is an innate quality of Anudeep. In that brand of comedy, it is not about giving a counter to a statement but making an absurd retort irrelevant to the situation. It’s telling something very silly in a very sober and serious tone. I wanted to try that.”
Other than Prince, this Diwali, Karthi will return to the screens with his spy-thriller titled Sardar, which is also making the right noise on social media. At the trailer launch of Sardar, Karthi wished his best for Prince, and Sivakarthikeyan extended the same by saying, “I think since both are from different genres, it will be a good competition. It’s healthy and good for everyone. Prince is an out-and-out comedy drama, while Sardar is a high-concept spy thriller done with a lot of deliberation. People would want to go to theatres during Diwali, so it will be a nice thing to have two releases.”
After Prince, Sivakarthikeyan will be seen in National Award-winning director Madonne Ashwin’s Maaveeran. Siva hints that the film has fantasy elements. After that, the Tamil star’s much-awaited sci-fi thriller Ayalaan will be released next summer. Directed by Ravi Kumar of Indru Netru Naalai fame, the movie has music by AR Rahman.
