I am after quality roles, not huge pay cheques: Neil Nitin Mukesh

CHENNAI: Actor Neil Nitin Mukesh is back in south after four years. The actor, who amassed fans with Kaththi, Saaho and Kavacham will be seen in a central character in CV Kumar’s directorial, MaayaOne, the sequel to his hit film Maayavan. Despite playing antagonist roles, Neil was still the centre of attention of movie geeks. “However, MaayaOne will have me in a character with multiple shades. When I listened to CV Kumar, the story excited me,” he begins.

This will be his fourth film and Neil is not into the number game. “I would love to do that and yes, after Kaththi I could have signed a dozen films down south. But I prefer quality over quantity. I was offered films that had huge setups and big money. That is not what I am looking for when my character isn’t impactful, irrespective of its screen time. As I say these, MaayaOne ticks all boxes. Be it my character, or the setup or the team, everything has fallen in place. Moreover, Sundeep and I share a good off-screen camaraderie for several years. That will reflect in the output of MaayaOne. We hit it off immediately on the sets during our rehearsals in Hyderabad,” says Neil with a tone of content.

In 2015, the actor in an interview with DT Next expressed his love for content that is being made in the south and still holds a firm ground on his words. “South has been delivering phenomenal films. Look at the kind of stories that are coming from filmmakers like Prashanth Neel, Lokesh Kanagaraj, Atlee, and Rajamouli. I always look forward to working with them. They are massy and larger-than-life. Yet, they do not take the audience for granted. Our audience is smart and they are well-educated in several genres. We don’t have to educate them further but just push the envelope. Prashanth did that with KGF. So, filmmakers need to have that confidence in the audience and make progressive cinema. MaayaOne is one such progressive script that CV Kumar has on hand. I loved the first part as well.”

According to Neil, he is a ‘bit nervous’ when it comes to acting. “From day one of the shoot till the film releases, I tend to be nervous and I believe that brings the best out of me. We are now rehearsing for MaayaOne and I will have my principal shoot in January before joining a major schedule again in February,” says the actor. The movie will be simultaneously shot in Tamil and Telugu. We ask him about his preparations on getting the lines right. “I was really hoping that you wouldn’t be asking me that. Now, you got the butterflies in my stomach going. But, on the brighter side, I managed to dub Saaho in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. Vijay sir was impressed with my Tamil in Kaththi. He was appreciative of my efforts in learning Tamil. He is a gem of a person,” he says before he is about to lounge after a long day wading through Mumbai traffic.