‘Was thrown into deep end of the pool from day one’
Vikram Prabhu is quite an interesting person to have a chat on cinema and he could go on for hours. We made the best use of the opportunity when he visited the DT Next office to talk about his Deepavali release Raid and how his approach remains the same despite continued success
Vikram Prabhu (Hemanathan M)
CHENNAI: Dressed in a yellow shirt and sporting a stubble, Vikram Prabhu is dapper as ever. He has quite a bit of fan following in our premise and congratulated him on Irugapatru before he could settle down for the interview. His upcoming film, Raid, is hitting the screens today and he is elated. “Deepavali releases or any festival releases are a huge and happy occasion. But I least anticipated Raid to release on Deepavali. Now I have ensured that I promote it well to reach the audience,” the actor begins.
Vikram Prabhu has been enjoying a good run at the box-office as well as on OTT with Taanakaaran, Ponniyin Selvan, and Irugapatru being critically-acclaimed. The reason is that the actor has struck a fine balance between what the audience expects of him and what he expects from a filmmaker and from himself. “I have always given myself the liberty to choose characters I want to play. Meanwhile, I ensured that my choices should connect or strike a chord with the audience as well,” he sums it up. The actor also feels that it is a hard place to be. “Some sensibilities work and others may or may not. For instance, Irugapatru is on one side of the spectrum and Raid is on the other side. However, both these contents have an audience is what I truly believe. I am an audience that watches a commercial film and a story with strong content. That is how I choose scripts too. Ultimately, as an actor I have to touch everything, which to me is a stepping stone. It has been good sometimes and bad sometimes. The process has been a huge learning. Though I come from a film background, nobody taught me how things work here. It was me jumping into the fire and learning how to walk through it,” he explains.
Stills from Raid
Raid, according to Vikram Prabhu is a proper commercial entertainer that is directed by debutant Karthi and has dialogues by Muthaiah. “Initially, Raid was planned to be directed by Muthaiah. However, he got busy with Viruman but he closely kept a watch on the developments. The script was written in a non-linear format. There are lots of complex elements in the first half and I was confused when the film was made. I used to ask Karthi about the continuity frequently. But I had fun doing the action sequences and they have come out well. Like everyone, I am waiting to watch it on the big screen,” he smiles.
Raid marks the second collaboration between Vikram Prabhu and Sri Divya after Vellaikaara Durai in 2014. Since then the actors have come a long way. “We both have evolved big time. She is extremely professional and her proficiency in Tamil too is commendable. In fact, she memorised my lines as well and when I changed a few words in the dialogues, she would grasp it immediately. This is something similar to Aishwarya Rai, who is known to mouth several pages of dialogues apart from knowing others dialogues too.”
Stills from Raid
On a concluding note, Vikram Prabhu says that despite consecutive successes, he will continue to do things that excite him as well as the audience. “I will look to challenge myself and do new things. That is what we are supposed to do as an actor - live 100 different lives,” he finishes with a punch.
