Look who is playing a cop!

Action movies were his favourites from childhood, hence so were the action heroes too. He did not miss even a single action packed movie, especially the flicks which have cops as the central characters. The award-winning singer Vijay Yesudas is now stepping into a career as an actor by donning the role of a daring cop in the Tamil action film Maari.

“My favourite roles on the screen were of course those of police officers. These were the characters that made a great impact on me as they made me think that I should become one of them. I used to watch all the police stories made in Malayalam as well as in Tamil. Though, I am an ardent Mohanlal fan from childhood, to be frank, the most powerful police officer on screen was Mammootty. His roles including Inspector Balram in Avanazhi and Sethuram Iyer, the investigation officer, in CBI Diary Kurippu, are roles close to my heart. In Tamil, Rajnikanth sir and Kamal Haasan sir have mesmerised me in my schooldays with their cop roles,” says Vijay.

Now it is his turn to define the strength of an onscreen police officer in the role of Arjun Kumar, the Sub Inspector. The trailer of Maari, which unveils the new look of the singer, has already gone viral on social media sites. According to Vijay, the role came to him in an unexpected way. “It was via Dhanush, who is the hero and co-producer of the movie, that I got the call for this role. Apart from the professional relation, we are family friends. It was during a foreign trip that I got a call from Dhanush saying that Balaji Mohan, producer of Maari would like to cast me in the role of a police officer. As it was a big banner film and a good role, I did not hesitate even for a second to say yes,” he says.

Though it is not the very first time he is getting an offer to act, the main plus point that made him give the green signal for this particular project was its scheduling. “The main factor which forced me to refuse previous offers was the timing of the shoots. Since basically I am a singer, I have to devote time for my music career too. But in the case of Maari, the director took extra effort to make the shooting schedule include dates which were convenient to me,” says Vijay.

As the news regarding his role in Maari was not leaked to the media and even among major fraction of film fraternity, during the production stage, Vijay was more conscious while attending public functions to avoid giving any hint about the character. “As I am doing the role of a cop with clean shaven face and sharp moustache, it is easy to guess the role from my get up itself. So, I used to attend functions, in Chennai and Kerala, with a stubble to avoid giving a clue about the role,” he quips.

Vijay, who has recently crooned two duet songs in the Malayalam version of big budget Telugu film Bahubali, has around four major projects in his kitty as a singer. Prithviraj starrer Ennu Ninte Moideen and Asif Ali’s Kohinoor are his upcoming films in Malayalam, while he has sung in Urumeen composed by Achu Rajamani and also Vishnuvardhan’s Yatchan in Tamil.