Vijay Antony on ‘Pichaikkaran 2’ and listening to the audience ‘inside him’
(Originally published in The Hindu on May 16, 2023)
When Vijay Antony speaks to me ahead of the release of Pichaikkaran 2, the time is around 3 a.m. in the wee hours of the morning. One naturally can sense a bit of tiredness in his voice — the CGI work for the film took some time, he says — and yet the conversation that follows brims with positivity, as he digs deep to let us make sense of everything about him. He even uses the timing of this interview as an allegory of how he looks at himself. “We are both respectful of each other’s time, and we don’t want to push this to tomorrow… another day full of uncertainties. I am sincere and truthful about this particular moment.” This is what he believes is the reason for his success. “I am not great at direction or music or anything; I just put in my effort sincerely, and I am confident that I will fight to the extreme when complications arise.”
Vijay has been vocal about how he feels more positive after his recovery post an unfortunate boat accident while shooting for the film. But the unshakeable self-confidence he speaks of has always been with him, be it when he was Francis Antony Cyril Raja (which was his official name) or when he composed music for television as Agni, or when he entered films as Vijay Antony. “I wasn’t even eligible to attain the things I did, but I was confident and that gave me everything I needed; even now it fetches me whatever I need.”
This seems even more intriguing when he attributes it to his script selection. He says he never pays conscious attention to see how cinema — the genre of masala entertainers in particular — changes over time; something you would assume is the reason behind a Thimiru Pudichavan (he even seems surprised when I say I liked it). Vijay credits the audience ‘within him’ for all the right calls he has taken. “The minute I start talking about doing something for the audience, I become someone else who works for them. It becomes like a transaction between an artist and a consumer.”
So, how does this audience inside Vijay Antony evolve? Pichaikkaran 1 was released pre-pandemic; with everything that the last few years have done to cinema, did he consciously keep an eye on how cinema consumption has changed? “No. Our minds begin
Read the full interview here: