‘The entertainment industry has become democratized’

Ganesh Venkatraman, who has acted in all south Indian languages, is making his debut in Bollywood with Guns of Banaras, the Hindi remake of K’town blockbuster  Polladhavan, starring Dhanush. This is the first time that Ganesh is taking on the avatar of a villain. He essays the part of Vikram Singh, a menacing, cocaine-snorting, power-hungry gangster. In an exclusive to DC, he speaks about his image makeover, mastering the Banarasi dialect, a fan moment with Madhuri Dixit,and more.

On his Bollywood debut: It is an amazing feeling making my debut in Bollywood, which is a dream come true. I was keen that it be the right script and right character in order make the right impact. I think it is the right time. The movie is about the conflict between two young men. Guns here refer to young guns - Guddu Shukla and Vikram Singh. While, Guddu, played by Karan Nath, is from the lower middle class, with very simple aspirations, Vikram is power-hungry and wants to become a don. How their paths cross forms the rest of the narrative. Director Sekhar Suri has retained the soul of the original Vetrimaaran story, though the film is shot in Banaras keeping local sensibilities in mind.  

 A spin on the original role: I am doing what Daniel Balaji did in Tamil. Sekhar has given a spin to the character, and it is much more menacing and powerful. He is not principled and goes to any extent to get what he wants. Abhimanyu Singh plays my elder brother. Working with him was great. We were competing with each other in all the combo scenes.

 Total image makeover: Tamil audiences are used to seeing me in urbane and boy-next-door roles. People are going to be really shocked seeing my menacing on screen side in GOB. I did not want any trace of Ganesh Venkatraman to show up in Vikram Singh. I had to beef up my body; I got fully tanned; I have a scar on my face; I have an Aghora Baba tattoo. I had to speak the dialect of the region. Though I speak good Hindi, I needed to speak Banarasi Hindi. We had a language coach. We went to the location 20 days ahead of shooting and observed the life of people there. I hope audience will lap it up and I wish to get such mass-appeal roles in Tamil as well.

 Preparation for the role: I have never tried cocaine even in fun (smiles). In order to portray someone addicted to a substance, I watched people who are used to it and took my references from them.

 No fear of type casting: I am happy that I started my Bollywood debut with a performance-oriented role in which people can see my acting chops. Getting such roles is really tough. There used to be a time when regional actors were stereotyped and only a few roles were available to them. But post the Baahubali success, things have changed. Today, audiences are accepting all films as long as the story is enticing and actors fit the characters they play. The Indian entrainment industry has become democratized. Actors are crossing the so-called boundaries in all platforms. I am happy enjoying that space.

 Sharing screen space with the late Bollywood star Vinod Khanna: I was fortunate to work with him. Because I had the advantage of speaking Hindi and Tamil fluently, I was able to mingle with everyone there. We stayed in the same place at Banaras for 25 days during the shooting. And invariably, we met at breakfast. He was a calm and spiritually-inclined person. With his vast knowledge of spiritualism, he explained to me how Kasi became a holy city. He talked of his earlier days, when they shot Hindi films in Chennai studios. And he talked often about Kamal Haasan sir and Telugu actor Venkatesh sir.

 Fan Moments with Madhuri Dixit: I have been a huge fan of Madhuri Dixit madam. I used to bunk school and watch the first day, first show of her films. She has an amazing smile and brings positive energy on to the screen. The entire experience while she launched our trailer recently was surreal. I won’t get a better Valentine’s Day gift than Madhuriji launching my film’s trailer. I spoke to her in Marathi and she was delighted. The film got the right impact and nationwide reach after she became part of the promotion efforts.