WATCH EXCLUSIVE Interview! Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam Reunite for ‘Thug Life’ After 38 Years: ‘I never liked advice; I would refrain…’ | Not Just Bollywood

On a hot and sultry day in Chennai, I caught up with the very talented Kamal Hassan and his team for an EXCLUSIVE interview on his film Thug Life. Dressed up very casually in faded jeans and a T-shirt, he was bursting with life even at the age of 70, making us believe that there is no age for retirement.

Thug Life film marks the reunion of Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam after 38 years since their cult classic Nayakan. When I reminded him about the gap of 38 years that he is reuniting with Mani Ratnam, he spontaneously said, ham kabhi juda nahi tha (we were never separated).

WATCH! EXCLUSIVE Interview | Kamal Haasan, Mani Ratnam Reunite for ‘Thug Life’ After 38 Years

Edited excerpts from the interview: 

You are reuniting with Mani Ratnam after 38 years; how does it feel?

For a movie, yes! We are reuniting after 38years. But ham kabhi juda nahi tha (we were never separated).

Your last film with with Mani Ratnam was a blockbuster, but do you take any pressure regarding this and your expectations from Thug Life ?

 Both of us had forgotten the last one, till you reminded me (laughs). We are happy that it was a huge hit then, but we can’t dwell on that. We can’t afford to dwell on Nayakan anymore.

What do you have to say about cinema changing?

Cinema is changing very fast. It used to be one year before, but now it is every three months.

How do you do it all in one being a singer, producer, actor, what inspires you every single day to reinvent yourself and how do you keep up with the changing time?

I have seen many people do that. Somehow, my friends do much more than what I can do.  Like I worked with Balachandran, the only thing he didn’t do in the beginning of our career is act. But he could do that fantastically too. I have seen them, initially I thought it to be easy. I just jumped into it and I had to learn to swim. I haven’t drowned, so I am glad.

When you started off, what was your journey like?

If there is no struggle, then I am sitting on somebody’s shoulder. Then I had to be a rich producer’s son or I had to have a rich father’s connection. I was none of it. And my father liked it that way. He supported me. But he didn’t have the kind of finance to realise my dreams. He did allow me to explore my dreams. I had to do it differently and whoever has done it differently, I copied them. It’s worth copying the difference, rather than copying the mundane.

Who has been your inspiration?

 So many! K Balachander and his father for finding the passion in a boy. What he found in him, I can’t find the same talent in a three-year-old boy. I truly can’t, but he did. You cannot make anybody act, you just need to have it within you. A true artist needs to have the guts question as to why he is doing a certain role. Payment won’t suffice.

With the OTT boom and everything, the movie is coming after 8 weeks. So, was it a conscious decision?

Yes, we spoke to them. It was a mutual decision for which we respect our partners. All the decisions were made with likeminded people who understand the business of cinema and the difficulty of selling tickets. The best way to do it is to arrive not on a compromise, but a concrete and inclusive plan is very important. It cannot be an exclusive business, that I make the money and nobody else does. I should thank them for the precedent that we are setting. Congregation will never change. They will keep coming together in a crowd. Nature levels it all out.

You played a woman too in Chachi 420 and in Pushpak, your eyes did all the talking. So, how you shift from one character to another?

I think it’s in my mother’s chromosome. Everybody has a little bit or a lot of their mother’s characteristics in them.

What is your message to the actors who want to take up acting as a career? Being a craftsman, what is it that you did right?

I never liked advice when I was their age. I would refrain. I wanted to suffer through life and it will be my discovery. Don’t spoil my explorations.

What is your expectation from Thug Life?

Oh! We are all excited about this film. Not just me, everybody in the film did a fantastic job. Had I been a little younger, I would have been envious. That’s how good it is. The excitement is already there. But the more tickets you buy, the happier we will be.