Actor Karthi Sivakumar is currently on board a village drama titled Kadaikutty Singam, in which he plays a farmer. The film is directed by national award winning director Pandiraj. Taking his job seriously, Karthi has joined a farming school to learn the agricultural techniques so as to give a more believable performance.
Speaking to DC on a sunny day, Karthi quips: “I want to play the role of a farmer to inspire the younger generation to take up agriculture and go back to their roots.” Bridging the divide between rural Tamil Nadu and the urban youth who are largely disconnected from agriculture was one of the chief reasons cited.
“Our country is an agriculture based country,” said Karthi, who is ready to go the full distance by joining organic farm consultant RM Venugopal at his institute named ‘I Learn Farming.’ Karthi wants to experience the processes and difficulties involved in translating the training onto the big screen.
Venugopal details his experience with Karthi: “I received a call from him after he had seen one of my school farming initiatives, and he wanted to come along with his family and friends, close to 30 in number, and visit my centre.” Apparently, Karthi wasn’t mucking around: “He wanted to have a hands-on experience for a day on the various techniques employed in organic farming and visited one of our centres in Puliyur village at Thirukazhukundram. Then I came to know that he watched one of our earlier programmes where a group of school students from Anandavalli Matriculation School took part in our training before visiting us,” remarked Venugopal.
Karthi went through the entire farming repertoire. Fields were ploughed, seeds were sown, rice cultivated, and an entire visit of the farm and the surrounding forests were arranged in order to witness the chemical free environment of an organic unit. The group topped off the day by having a meal purely prepared out of millets. It follows a trend where Karthi has been extending his onscreen roles to the real world.
Earlier, Karthi had helped bring about a trust for retired police officers and their families and had even contributed Rs. 10 lakhs towards it. He was inspired by playing a tough cop in Theeran Adigaram Ondru and knew of the difficulties faced by the police personnel of this country. What’s his next curious initiative? Well, just wait till he announces his next film!
