Vijay Sethupathi on Kadaisi Vivasayi: 'I had to become one with nature'

Vijay Sethupathi is one of India’s most accomplished actors. His range is staggering. His performances stretch from the villain in Uppena to the transgender in Super Deluxe. Vijay considers his latest release Kadaisi Vivasayi to be the most precious role of his career so far. Excerpts: It’s always a pleasure to speak to you specially after I see you give one more brilliant performance in Kadaisi Vivasayi?  This is not a performance and film that can be compared with anything I have done before. It addresses the issue of man’s closeness to nature and that’s something I really believe in. Was it the theme that attracted you to the film? To begin with, it was an offer from director K Manikandan who is one of those filmmakers, I’d do anything for. We have worked together earlier in Aandavan Kattalai. He is someone I trust blindly. When he told me the subject of Kadaisi Vivasayi, I agreed to it. What difficulties did Kadaisi Vivasayi have to face? We had to stop the shooting during the COVID. We had to shoot under really harsh circumstances. When you are making a film like Kadaisi Vivasayi you have to be prepared for hardships. It is not a routine entertainer. Not that entertainment is not important. I will entertain and also do a film like Kadaisi Vivasayi which makes audiences think. In Kadaisi Vivasayi you play Ramaiah, a wanderer, a man who has lost his love, someone who has no home no attachments and someone who is very close to nature. How was the preparation of the role like? It is the most difficult role of my career. I had to be not only close to the nature, but I also had to become one with nature at the end.  That was not easy to do. I had to believe in what I was doing. Or I would have looked fake. I didn’t want to mess it up. On the protagonist of the story… 85-year-old   farmer Nallandi plays the protagonist. He was a real-life farmer—he passed away six months before the film’s release—so close to nature he could sit the entire day gazing at the sky or looking at a peacock. Or tilling his small plot of land. I learnt so much from Nallandi just by observing him. His energy level was so high that he would not rest for even half an hour during shooting.  When we would suggest an afternoon siesta he would turn around and say, ‘How can you take time off to sleep when so much money is being spent?’  Nallandi could calculate the exact amount being spent during the shooting every day. He knew the value of time, money and nature. The time I spent with him is most valuable to me. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.