When Kollywood looks beyond

Bringing in a popular foreign actor to K-town has become a trend among Tamil directors. And the recent rumour that Hollywood star Al Pacino is in talks for Dhanush’s upcoming film with Karthik Subbaraj is now the talk of the city.

Most often than not, this type of casting is considered mainly to garner international attention and to take the film to a wider audience. Roping in a Bollywood actor is a similar attempt to take the film to the country’s Hindi speaking population. Now, it seems like K-town is trying to expand its territory
further.

Arnold Schwarzenegger came close to playing the villain in the Rajinikanth starrer, 2.0, but the makers settled for Akshay Kumar when the initial approach to sign in the Hollywood actor drew a blank.

However, Ranjith brought in Winston Chao, a popular Taiwanese actor, for Rajinikanth’s Kabali. The move brought about the expected result. Winston Chao’s face value indeed played a crucial role in the success of the film in Singapore and Malaysia.

Director Kalyanakrishnan, director of Bhooloham, which has professional wrestler and actor Nathan Jones in the lead role, affirms that face value is the primary reason for such casting. “It should be noted that director Jannathan sir started this trend by casting in the film Peranmai. I then thought it will be a good idea to rope in a foreign talent for my film. It gets a lot of recognition for the film internationally.”

He adds, “Not only in terms of actors, interactions between Hollywood and Tamil cinema should also be in terms of technicians including art directors, stunt and dance choreographers. The foreign actors come here with a notion that we are not organised but they are often stunned when they observe our working culture. This scenario will groom many talents that will take our films forward.”

However, sometimes casting just for the face value of the actor has not made any difference to the films. Except a few films like Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu, where the role of Anderson played by Lev Gorn is still remembered, many films don’t make an impact with its exotic casting.

For instance, Danny Sappani, a popular actor, who has worked with Academy Award winner Danny Boyle, played the villain in Singam 2, but the role made negligible difference to the story!

If this type of casting aims at catering to the international audience, then one should say it has not been fruitful so far. On the other hand, the films which have transcended the political boundaries are the ones which have been hyper-local like Visaaranai, Kanavu Variyam and Sila Samayangalil.

These films stand evident to the adage: the more regional an art, the more universal it may become. Arun Chidambaram, director of Kanavu Variyam, which has won about 15 international awards, says, “A big cast is important to a script. But in my opinion, whoever acts in a film, at the end of the day, it’s the story that is going to win you recognition. Take Kanavu Variyam, for example. The film is about power cuts, but it could connect with people of countries where power shortage is unheard of. So, more local the story, more it appeals to people of all the regions.”