I'm not a superhero: Sasikumar

Dressed in a blue shirt and a kasavu mundu, actor/director/producer Sasikumar could well pass off for a Malayali. Here in Kochi for the promotion of his Tamil film Tharai Thappattai releasing on Thursday, he is gung ho about his role which could be termed as his most challenging one to date.
 

Tharai Thappattai directed by Bala has Sasikumar playing a nadaswaram player who heads a karagattam troupe. It was while Sasikumar was working as the assistant to director Bala that the role was offered to him.

Sasikumar continues, “Since it is a film based on karagattam and traditional instruments like nadaswaram, thavil and thappu, Bala sir asked me to learn the basics of folk dance and the instruments. I am not proficient in dance and my co-stars are all professional dancers so I went to a dance school for a month to learn karagattam. Every morning, I learnt the correct way to handle music instruments. The homework took two months to perfect and only after that did the actual shoot start.”

The actor also sustained an arm fracture while shooting for an action sequence in the climax. Sasikumar brushes off the accident very humorously, saying, “I was advised three week’s rest but it took four months for my hand to heal completely. As soon as I came back, I got a scene that tested my fractured hand— I had to carry the heroine Varalaxmi for the entire sequence of a song. That was a heavy task for me and I used to jokingly tell her to reduce her weight.” Sasikumar adds that though he was the actor and producer of the film, he is still an assistant director and student whenever Bala directs him.

Sasikumar’s films have a very realistic approach and he candidly says, “I am not a superhero and the audience see me as one amongst them so I prefer doing realistic themes they can identify with.”

Sasikumar had acted in the Malayalam film Masters and he got a lot of offers after that which he could not commit to because of his Tamil projects. He recalls, “Johnny Antony wanted me to act in the film and I played the role of a Kottayam-based reporter. I really wanted to dub for the film but could not handle the Kottayam slang. In fact, I wanted to learn Malayalam the two months I was in Kerala, but everyone in the crew, including the director and Prithviraj, talked to me in Tamil that I felt I was in Chennai. Maybe the next time around, I will learn Malayalam.”