Cliched English villain in Tamil cinema? No, not me: Daniel Caltagirone

CHENNAI: In the last few days, Daniel Caltagirone has been the centre of attention in Thangalaan promotional events and he carries a similar effervescence even during our chat. Dressed in a black denim jacket and a white t-shirt, he waves at us and before we begin, the actor, who is known for Leo Di Caprio’s Beach and Tomb Raider among others, says, “This isn’t my first foray into Indian cinema. I worked with Shekhar Kapur’s The Four Feathers (2002) and Tarsem Singh’s The Fall (2006) that were shot in several countries. Technically, Thangalaan is my third Indian movie and first Tamil film, in fact, a film that would appeal to pan-Indian audiences. Thanks to Pa Ranjith’s vision,” he begins.

Daniel rewinds to the days when Pa Ranjith approached Daniel to play Lord Clement in Thangalaan that will hit the screens tomorrow (August 15). “Before we could break the ice, Ranjith asked me to watch Sarpatta Parambarai. Half way through the film, I was quite sold with his screenplay, his vision, and the way he used cinema to talk about various causes. And when it came to Clement, we all have seen how actors from other regions or countries are being used in regional films. Ranjith quickly clarified that I wouldn’t be playing a clichéd antagonist,” adds the actor. He then goes on to give us an outline of his character and remarks, “Clement is a towering personality. He has this village that follows him and obeys his orders. He is an intense character. Ranjith told me to be bigger in terms of the character because if I don’t make myself look bigger in the world of Thangalaan, the world would swallow me up. So, the first two weeks were difficult for me. However, I understood what the characters around me were going through, so things started falling in place. It started getting more organic by how we give cues to each other. Me, Vikram, Pasupathy and Parvathy. They are all brilliant actors. Vikram is someone who doesn’t act but reacts to our cues, which is a brilliant thing. In fact, I didn’t read the script and I went by the general sense of each scene.”

Daniel also adds that despite working across several industries, he had a lot to unlearn after Thangalaan. “I had to unlearn Clement and unload him off my shoulders. I spent a year with him and I had to let him go. It was a fight or flight mode. I was like thank you it was nice knowing you but not amazing to know you. The learning part is about this beautiful thing that we are a part of something and accepting something new-- a new culture or a craft and the process behind it,” he concludes.