Audience will punch me for my ‘silence’: Maddy

Madhavan aka Maddy isn’t someone who minces his words. He speaks his heart out whenever he gives an interview and makes you feel like having a chat with one of your childhood buddies. He begins talking about his film Silence (Nishabdham in Telugu) written and produced by Kona Venkat that is all set to premiere on Amazon Prime on October 2. “When the film came to me it was a silent film. I found it really unique and as the film progressed, the script required dialogues here and there. It has minimalistic dialogues and we were in fact making fun of it saying that all the dialogues in the film were out in the trailer. I play an international musician in the film. A cello player — a stylish cello player rather. So, I had to take my cello lessons for three weeks. After my training, I couldn’t get even a single note right. There will be sweet cello music playing in the background while the cello I played made creaking sounds. But I believe I have put up a decent performance and I leave that to the audience to judge. If I haven’t justified it, they are going to punch me in my face surely,” he smiles. This is his first Tamil film in a lead role since Vikram Vedha in 2017. “People have started calling me a somberi nadigan (lazy actor), who gives them films once in three years. That wasn’t my plan originally. I wanted to do a few decent films in regular intervals but COVID-19 had other plans. But then I have a few more films (Maara and Nambi: The Rocketry Effect) that are due for release. I am excited about them and at the same time it certainly gives me the jitters. I am hoping that complaints won’t be there anymore,” he smiles.

Silence is also Maddy and Anushka’s second collaboration after Rendu. “Anushka’s charm is still the same. What I noticed when we worked in this film was that her passion for movies has gone up tremendously,” he compliments. There were a few reports since Iruddhi Suttru’s release that the actor apparently had to drink a round or two to act drunk in a scene with Nasser. “Nasser is a one-take artiste and I had to match him. Being passionate about acting and doing justice to the role, I wanted the scene to look authentic. So I drank Vodka till I threw up and almost passed out. So, my advice is, do not have Vodka by the seashore. The effect it will have on you is double,” he laughs. Maddy had predicted films releasing on OTT a few years ago. “Wait and watch, there will be a platform where filmmakers can put their content in a platform and can monetise it,” he concludes.