''I HAD IDENTIFIED MY MISTAKES AND I WILL NOT REPEAT THEM'', RJ BALAJI

Mani Ratnam’s Kaatru Veliyidai (KV) is hitting the screens this week on the 7th of April and RJ Balaji plays an important role in the film. Here, in an exclusive chat with behindwoods, the actor talks about the film, Mani Ratnam, his unlearning and much more.

The Kaatru Veliyidai experience
It is a Mani Ratnam film and that’s what I will remember. I have never dreamt of being a part of a Mani sir film. I was in total awe in the 10-12 days of my shoot in the film.
When you ask about the experience, I was happy to have been just with him and observe the process. This was my biggest joy.

Mani Ratnam
Mani sir does not tell you what you should do, in an elaborate way. You can learn and unlearn watching him and that’s what happened to me. If you ask me what is that BIG thing I learnt, I can say that I had identified my mistakes and I will not repeat them. This was my greatest awareness having worked with Mani sir.

Learning from Kaatru Veliyidai
In KV, it is more of unlearning than learning. For instance, when I had to express ‘shock’, I turned my head and Mani sir was like-what are you doing? I told him that’s what I have seen in many films. He stated that I need to hold it and express in the eyes. I got to understand small things such as these. There is a difference between how we see cinema and how he sees it. This in itself was a revelation. I learnt to see without blinking in an entire frame or a shot. It’s mostly unlearning and I am sure it’s going to stay with me for life.

My character
Normally, hero’s friends are always motor mouths and when I play such roles, people expect me to talk more. I have till now, mostly played such roles but after a while, I kind of started resenting them.

In Kaatru Veliyidai, you would not see RJ Balaji but a character written by Mani Ratnam sir. I have played HIS character. But he gave me the freedom of speaking my lines in sync with the context. It will not be Karthi or RJ Balaji you will see on screen but characters written by Mani sir.

I play Dr Illyas Hussain an orthopedic surgeon who works in the Military Hospital where Leela (Aditi) works. I will be this one person who is level headed, sensible, matured and don’t jump to conclusions. In short, it’s very unlike me. This is the nicest guy I have played on screen.

Karthi
It was fun from the day one. We got along very well. We still are in good terms, keep discussing about the books to read, etc. We have a good rapport.

Aditi Rao Hydari
Though I had most of my scenes with Aditi and Karthi, I did not much interact with Aditi as she was very conscious about her Tamil lines. All I can say is she is pretty, a good talent, and can sing and dance well.

Ravi Varman
Most of my interaction in the film was with Mani sir and cinematographer Ravi Varman. I got along pretty well with both of them and in fact, Ravi Varman has become a close friend of mine now.

Were there appreciations from Mani Ratnam?
Not just me, but any actor who is a part of Mani Ratnam film will know the way he lauds an artist. Once he said, ‘nice’ and went away. When I lamented to Karthi that he just said NICE and nothing else, Karthi said, “Buddy, It is the greatest appreciation you will get from Mani sir. It took one week for me get that NICE. But you got in the second day itself”. He told me ‘NICE’ 2-3 times! This is the best thing he would say.

Once Mani sir said that Editor Sreekar Prasad had mentioned that Dr Illyas has come out very well. That was the biggest thing for me as Sreekar Prasad sir does not easily appreciate. I was very happy.

More than the appreciation, the learning curve in the time that I was there, was significant for me. It has made me a confident person and I can take up challenging roles now. I am getting good projects and not that of friend’s roles who would come with the hero and crack a few jokes.

The general talk is that if Mani sir likes someone, he will make them act in his subsequent films. I hope I am there in all his films in the future.

Upcoming projects
I have Yung Mung Sung (YMS) with Prabhu Deva sir, Thaana Serndha Koottam (TSK) with Suriya sir, Sivakarthikeyan’s Velaikkaran and Mahesh Babu-ARM film. There are other films too, which I would confirm after I sign them. In YMS and TSK, my roles are not the usual ones, they are characters written and it won't be RJ Balaji.  

That was wonderful Balaji. We wish you the best!

Jyothsna Bhavanishankar

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