Actor Kavin on ‘DaDa’ and the road to success
(Originally published in The Hindu on July 12, 2022)
In today’s world, it takes more than 24 art forms for a film to win. In the post-streaming era, theatrical success depends a lot on who is selling the product and how they are selling it. So, two things have visibly become more challenging: getting a theatrical release and pulling the crowd to the cinema halls. “For a three-film-actor like myself, it gets even more challenging and it’s vital that the content is top-notch,” says actor Kavin, whose recent release DaDa has been getting some raving reviews from all over.
It’s safe to say that Kavin has big dreams of becoming a star, and shows a lot of promise as well. And for where he is in his career, consistently good results on the big screen are vital to sustaining in a volatile field such as this. As his previous film, Lift, was released on OTT due to the pandemic, Kavin pinned a lot of hope on DaDa. But what’s more pivotal in getting a theatrical release is getting a ‘good theatre release’. “From getting the right number of screens, a well-planned release date, to promotions…a lot goes into it,” he says. This is where Udhayanidhi Stalin’s Red Giant Movies came in to make things easier. “I wasn’t too sure if they would release the film as they usually deal with films of a bigger scale. But I was hopeful because they have distributed films like Mynaa, which were small films but good in content.”
Hence, only when all these factors come together, and “when the content resonates with the audience, will we get such good results,” he adds. And content is clearly a big selling point for DaDa. Ganesh K Babu’s film has Kavin playing a young man who is forced to pull up his sleeves and become a single father when his partner, played by Aparna Das, abandons him and their newborn. In this conversation after the release of the film, Kavin speaks about the many moments from the film, how he handles success and more. Excerpts:
Even though you were upping your game since ‘Saravanan Meenakshi’ times, your fandom grew exponentially after ‘Bigg Boss’. Was it overwhelming?
No, I’ve always looked at social media as a fantasy. We might never understand what’s real or fake there; ground reality is different. Many things have to come together for the success of a film; fandom alone cannot help.
Did you realise during the narration of ‘Dada’ that this script had scope for performances?
I’ve known director Ganesh for a long time and he told me this story even before I went to Bigg Boss. I strongly believe
Read the full interview here: