I was reborn on the sets of Mark Antony: Vishal

CHENNAI: Dressed in white deep neck-shirt and high-waisted trousers, Vishal is all set for the big event—Mark Antony’s pre-release. The 172-second trailer opened to an amazing response within an hour of its release.

“If a two-minute trailer has so much to offer to the audience, imagine how much a 150-minute story can offer. Mark Antony has everything for the audience and Adhik has packed it crisply and he needs to be given all the credit to have pulled this off.

Again, with music releasing in a few minutes, GV Prakash has given a killer music and background score for the film,” he tells us. The film has an ensemble star cast of SJ Suryah, Selvaraghavan, Sunil, Y Gee Mahendran, Abinaya and Ritu Varma. Vishal says that he wasn’t intimidated by any of these power-packed performers on location. “Mark Antony’s script demands it. Moreover, the script requires that balance and there is nothing I need to be insecure about.

Only if SJ Suryah’s character is strong, the film would reach its peak in the climax. Despite the climax, we all know that other characters needed to be penned strongly. Irumbuthirai is still spoken-about because Arjun sir’s character was strong.

Likewise, Mark Antony too will be spoken about,” he asserts with confidence. This is the first time he plays a dual role in a film and he says that it was challenging at times to play a father and son. “I play Mark as well as Antony from various time periods.

At a point in time, the son tries to speak to his father through a time travel machine. And you would have seen one surprise look in the trailer. I can guarantee that you wouldn’t see Vishal in the runtime of Mark Antony. Moreover, I had to wear those wigs, coloured lenses and costumes. It wasn’t easy,” he says and doesn’t stop there.

He travels back to the shooting days and reminisces about three instances. “You were there when my tailbone popped out. People told me that I need a minimum of a month’s rest. But I didn’t want to. It was for one man, producer Vinod. He splashed huge money on the sets and if I didn’t show up, he would incur a loss of Rs 1.5 crore.

I didn’t want that to happen. He gave more than what the story required whenever Adhik asked. Leave me, SJ Suryah and Adhik out, the film should reap returns for Vinod. Also, the car accident was another incident in which I had a narrow escape.

It was a matter of life and death within a matter of seconds. I told Adhik that I am born again and asked for his permission to wrap the shoot for the day. And on another day, we were shooting for an Amman song and I went in a trance mode for a few minutes,” he elaborates.

The movie will release for the Vinayaka Chathurthi weekend and Vishal laughs, “Four chronic bachelors are releasing this film. Vinayakar, me, SJS and Adhik. I am sure it will be a treat for the audience. Usually sci-fi films work in A centres.

Mark Antony would work well across all sections of audience,” he adds. Talking about his upcoming projects, he says, “I have completed the first schedule of Hari’s film and I have opened the account already,” he shows a scar in his forearm.

“Apart from that I can’t wait to say ‘Start Camera’, on the sets of my debut directorial Thuppparivaalan 2, which will commence after my 34th film. The pre-production is over and we are all set to go on floors early next year,” he concludes.