'People make you Star when you give them relevant content'

CHENNAI: Sivakarthikeyan, fondly addressed to as SK by everyone and embraced as Prince by his ardent fans has lost a few kilos and looks at his best as he walks in to talk about his upcoming movie Prince titled after his moniker. He smiles as soon as we compliment on his athletic look and says, “This is for Maveeran, directed by Madonne Ashwin and when I heard the story I thought I should lose some weight.” Except for his beard, he looks like the Sivakarthikeyan of the 2000s when he started becoming a household name across Tamil Nadu. “I will surely shave my beard off and do a photoshoot after I complete Maaveeran. Trust me, you would be getting the first picture that comes out,” he laughs. The crisply packed trailer of his upcoming film Prince, directed by Anudeep KV, is fun-filled and talks about several relevant things that includes war too. Siva plays a social science teacher in the movie. “It has been a while since I did a full-fledged comedy film and Prince was the right script to explore it again. Of course, like all my other comedy films, it has an underlying message as well. Prince talks about love, humanity and says why war is never an option. If I have to sum up the movie in one word, Prince is about being human. There is a flashback portion in the movie but only for a few minutes,” he remarks.

Three releases in one year for a south star is quite a huge thing in the industry and Sivakarthikeyan is also on the verge of scoring a hat-trick of success with Prince if the content strikes the chord with the audience. “I wake up every morning with a motive of doing good work. I look forward to doing the scenes properly on the sets. Having said that, when Prince came to me I put the success of Doctor and Don behind me. I am aware that I am here to deliver films that the audience would love and emerge successful. But when I started off with Prince, I realised that I did the work that was given to me in Doctor and Don, for which people already showered their love. As Prince is all set for a release, I am a little nervous and there is also a lot of excitement because the scenes which we thought would be relatable to the audience should evoke the right emotions when they watch it in the theatre. I am sure they would,” says the actor.

Having started his journey in television, his rise to stardom has been an incredible journey. Having tasted success and love from the audience, Sivakarthikeyan says that stardom or even superstardom is there to stay. “It happens only when you give content that is relatable to the audience. They are keen on seeing their favourite actor on the big screen and the magic happens only when we deliver content they love to watch. Even OTT has contributed to taking stardom to people’s television during the pandemic. Be it theatre or digital medium, good content has always worked,” he adds.

The film will also see Ukrainian actress Maria Ryaboshapka playing the female lead. “Watching war in the news was quite horrifying. Maria told us what exactly was happening in Ukraine and we saw pictures of a war-torn nation and houses that were bombed. And we happened to see all these when shooting for a film that says ‘no’ to war. I hope the war ends soon,” says Siva.

Siva is one of the very few actors who hasn’t pressed the pan-Indian buzzer yet despite giving quality films. “We made Ayalaan even before the word pan-Indian was a thing. Doctor was one of the top trending films on OTT away from India. More than the tag it is about the script and how people even away from the country enjoy it. Kantara is a deep-rooted Kannada film but people across the nation have enjoyed it. If my movies are relatable to the audience, they will be pan-Indian by default,” he concludes.