Veteran Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh was in the news recently for making his acting debut in a Tamil film, Dikkiloona. His frequent poetic tweets in Tamil since then, with references to Kollywood, have now landed him another plum offer. Yes, Harbhajan will be essaying the role of the ancient poet-philosopher Thiruvalluvar, author of the Tamil literary classic Thirukkural.
Harbhajan will play the iconic poet in a web series titled Thirukural Consultancy Services, directed by Dude Vicky and produced by popular YouTube Channel Blacksheep.
Talking to Deccan Chronicle, Vicky says, “Thirukkural is considered as one of the world’s greatest works on ethics and morality. It is famous for its universality and secular messages. Yet, we felt that the book is not being given enough attention in the current digital world. That’s why I pitched a story in which Tiruvalluvar comes alive and helps the present-day IT guys who suffer innumerable pressures and problems, through his kurals.”
On zeroing in on the spinner for the role of Thiruvalluvar, he said, “This (the series) has a universal concept and goes beyond Harbhajan’s identity as a Punjabi. Plus, it is widely known that Harbhajan has shown keen interest in the Tamil language and its heritage through his social media handle. Moreover, his face bears an uncanny resemblance to the poet Thiruvalluvar! We approached him to play the significant character because of all these reasons.”
Vicky says Harbhajan was very interested in the story, and was keen to portray the world-famous poet. Artist Venugopal Sharma was roped in to make a sketch of the poet-sage with Harbhajan as the model, and the spinner was bowled over, he added.
“Harbhajan gave us two days for shooting for the first season of TCS and we shot his portions day and night. He learnt the meaning of each and every line before every shot and gave a fantastic performance.
He was very easy-going and comfortable to work with,” says Vicky.
The web series will be aired from February 2nd, 2020.
