Playing Sai Baba

Actor Sreejith Vijay’s biggest claim to fame was playing Pappu in the Rathinirvedham remake with Shweta Menon in the lead. The actor then went on to do a couple of other films and even hosted a popular dance reality show before deciding to change tracks and become an RJ based out of Dubai.

Life was chugging along placidly till he got ‘the’ call that will surely have the spotlight trained on him in a big way. Sreejith is replacing Malayalam actor Dileep in the big budget Telugu biopic film Sri Sathya Sai Baba directed by Kodi Ramakrishna. Incidentally, Sreejith was already penciled in to play the younger version of the Baba (which has already been shot) and he will now continue to play the role throughout the film.

For those curious about the reasons Dileep was replaced by Sreejith, it was the busy star’s unavailability of dates to allocate for the long schedule. Besides, sources say the director was sceptical if Dileep’s star value would overtake his actor value and had him replaced by Sreejith.

The young actor is understandably over the moon with the new development but is not letting any grass grow under his feet. He says, “This is a golden opportunity for me. Kodi sir thought of trying me out for the entire life of Baba but I had to go through a makeup test first. The film goes through five different stages of Baba’s life and I had a makeup test for each stage and it was only after Kodi sir was satisfied that he decided to confirm me.” The film will be dubbed into other regional languages and this is Kodi’s 138th film.

Sreejith is aware of the huge expectations resting on his shoulders and he is not nervous about the big responsibility because he has full faith in his director. “If he has given me this opportunity, that itself shows his confidence in me! I was confirmed for this lead role five months back and since then I have been reducing my weight. Baba is very lean and I watched Baba’s videos to get his body mannerisms right. Baba walks in a fluid motion and I paid attention to his hand and facial movements. I was sent a lot of videos by the team and my primary work has been to watch it.” Jayapradha and Sharath Babu play Baba’s parents in the biopic.

Sreejith has quit his RJ job to give his undivided attention to the dream role.
 A chapter that Sreejith holds close to his heart is his association with the late actress Sukumari, who is playing a devotee in the film. The film has already completed 20 per cent of the shoot and Sreejith had some scenes with her.