CAST ASHOK SELVAN INTERVIEW

I started doing short films for my seniors & classmates, and then for others after they got to know I was interested in acting and had seen my work. I didn’t have any formal training in acting, so it was like trial and error; with every shot we did we learned something. I figured that going to offices and giving them my photos wouldn’t work for me, so I decided to do a lot of short films because then in the process I could meet a lot of directors who would eventually become feature film directors; that was my strategy. 

I did “Green” when I was 19, as a college project. That was my first short film, story and direction. It won Best Film at the 2012 International Tamil Thoth Conference in Singapore. It’s very close to my heart since it was my first directorial debut. 

For that film it was just me, the director and the camera-man in Ladakh for 18 days. It was a life-changing shoot. Before that I was just doing whatever the director was telling me to but on that short we worked together on character graphs…I became very serious [about acting] after that shoot.

There are two types of films going on right now. CV Kumar’s film’s are treated like ‘indies’, and then there are the mainstream ‘Kodambakkam films’. If it was a mainstream film I would’ve thought twice about acting [in a group]. But with Nalan and CV I knew importance would be given to the script. There wouldn’t be separate scenes for the hero’s image beyond what was necessary in the story. It was quite a risky gamble, because I had rejected multi-star offers before that, but I just knew it was meant to be my first film. 

Huge pressure! Your first film as the main hero itself is pressurizing, and then to add that Pizza title was double the pressure! But I think that is what pushed me to the next level. It was a good kind of pressure!

Yes. People started approaching me with more thrillers, and some other things, after Thegidi. But this script was very light and I wanted to try comedy. And it’s with a good production company.

I definitely have plans of directing, but not anytime soon. That urge is always there.

I think I would have a different job every 3 months! I have other desires besides acting, for instance, I would like to be a writer. There are a lot of things I would like to do, that I will do. It doesn’t have to be because I am bored of acting, but because I would love to try many different types of roles in life and figure out exactly what I am here for. 

1 word to describe each co-star/director/producer

a)      Vijay Sethupathy             - heart

b)      Sanchita Shetty               - supportive

c)       Nalan Kumarasamy        - great writer (2 words please!)

d)      C.V. Kumar                      - mentor

e)      Deepan Chakravarthy      - visualization

f)       Janani Iyer                       - sweet

g)      P. Ramesh                       - clarity

Actor you’d most like to work with?                              

- Ajith!
 

Actress you’d most like to work with?                          

- Deepika Padukone!
 

Director(s) you’d most like to work with?                   

- Vetrimaaran, Selvaraghavan, Mani Ratnam, Karthik Subbaraj
 

Favorite Tamil movie of all time?                                     

- Sathya
 

Favorite Hollywood or foreign language film(s) of all time?

       – In the Mood for Love, Crash, No Country for Old Men