Sivakarthikeyan interview: On becoming Major Mukund Varadarajan in ‘Amaran’ and receiving the ‘Thuppakki’ from Vijay

Sivakarthikeyan also speaks about how he prepared for the role, shooting the film in Kashmir, interacting with the 44 Rashtriya Rifles unit, and handling real AK 47s

Sivakarthikeyan: Destiny’s child

In 2012, Sivakarthikeyan, then a television anchor and budding actor, was eager to catch the premiere of Vijay’s Deepavali releaseThuppakki, an action-thriller following an Indian Army soldier’s secret mission to track down a sleeper cell in Mumbai. “I struggled to get tickets. It was Rajkumar Periasamy (who was Thuppakki-director AR Murugadoss’ assistant then), who arranged for the tickets. I had even tweeted saying, Inaiku kaila thuppakki vechirkravana vida, Thuppakki ticket vechirkravan dhan mass. (He who has a ticket for Thuppakki is cooler than the one who owns a gun),” reminisces Sivakarthikeyan.

Now, 12 years later, in the climax of The Greatest of All Time, superstar-turned-politician Vijay, popularly addressed as 'Thalapathy' by fans, in the twilight of his film career, symbolically passes on the baton — dubbed ‘Thuppakki’ — to Sivakarthikeyan, the last of the theatre-made Tamil superstars. Only time can tell the magnitude of this moment, but Siva insists this gesture is not about who gets to fill Vijay’s shoes. “Nobody can do that. Vijay sir has had his own journey. If nobody can replace that journey, nobody can replace him. Everyone has their own place in this world. The audiences never said they would only accept a certain number of heroes; they are ready to celebrate whoever gives them good films,” says Siva.

For the young man who watched Vijay embody on screen the might of the Indian Army, life has come full circle. Siva will be seen this Deepavali as an Indian Army major, carrying real AK 47s, in the Rajkumar-directed biopic Amaran (he’s also shooting for his film with Thuppakki-maker Murugadoss).

An opportunity to shine

Amaran has Siva attempting the monumental task of playing the late Major Mukund Varadarajan, AC, the inspiring Indian hero who was killed while leading his 44 Rashtriya Rifles unit in a counter-terrorism mission in Jammu and Kashmir. Amaran, Siva says, goes beyond depicting the decades of ongoing tensions in the ‘crown of India’. “This is a film that shows the backdrop these soldiers come from, how they treat their families and vice versa, how their profession affects their personal lives, what their families undergo when they are on a mission, and so on.” Siva is aware that this role is a departure from the usual ‘packaging’ of commercial elements we find in his films. “It’s the emotional highs and lows that make this palatable to the larger masses.”

Siva had his apprehensions about taking on this role. However, the challenges it posed and Rajkumar’s script empowered him to overcome such concerns. “I was confident that I could break my limitations and explore myself as a performer. Rajkumar asked me to keep aside my strengths; he only wanted me to bring to the fore the connection I have with the audience.”

Becoming Major Mukund Varadarajan

Getting into shape to play an Army officer was the first challenge. The film shows Major Mukund in four different stages of life — as a college student, as a cadet of the Officers Training Academy, as a Captain, and then as a Major. “Playing the lean young man at the OTA and playing a Major are at two extremes of this spectrum; I was supposed to weigh around 70 kilos for the former, while the scales had to show 80 kilos for the latter. Moreover, I don’t possess a well-built body. But I had to look a certain way while holding that gun, and so I had to work out twice a day every day during shooting, eat more protein, and bulk up a bit,” says Siva.

Playing a real-life character demands you to understand the boundaries of the personality, so, the actor made headway in understanding who Major Mukund was and what he needed to convincingly play him on screen. For this, Siva and the team met the officer’s loved ones and personnel of the Indian Army who worked alongside him. “To understand how he reacted in different situations, I got inputs from his superior officers. Some military men maintain a straight face at all times, but Major Mukund carried all sorts of emotions. He used to be quite the entertainer at parties, we were told. So we imbibed all these details about him.”

You also wonder how the soft-spoken Sivakarthikeyan transformed into an officer commanding a team of soldiers. “A commander needs to have that element of command. More than merely shouting out the dialogue, I tried to understand the meaning behind what he was trying to convey. Say, he has to motivate 10 soldiers before launching an operation; he believed sincerely that each of them is important to the operation and that they all have to come back safely.” Understanding this helped transform his composure, he adds.

Siva says he found a lot of similarities between his late father G Doss, who served as a Jail Superintendent at Tiruchi Jail, and Major Mukund. “Maybe it’s a quality that is distinct in officers but again it was that quality that made it easier to approach the role. For over 21 years, I have been living with memories of my father; like how he managed 1,500 criminals, how he treated his subordinates, and how he behaved in a tense situation, and so on.”

That the story is not just about Major Mukund heading a mission — Amaran also shows aspects of the major’s personal life (Sai Pallavi plays Mukund’s widow, Indhu Rebecca Varghese) — made it even more relatable, says Siva. “For instance, his mother was quite worried about him joining the Army, while his father was more encouraging. So hearing such details brought us closer to him.”

Shooting in Kashmir, interacting with 44 Rashtriya Rifles unit, and handling real AK 47s

From their early interactions with Army officers, Siva understood their grouse with the filmy representation of their lives. Making it as real as possible became the collective motto of the team. To do so, Amaran was shot in real locations in Kashmir where Major Mukund served. Siva recalls shooting a scene at a military dormitory, where one would all of a sudden hear grenades exploding in the fields. “We laid out clear instructions about the areas the film unit could venture into and the areas that were restricted. What I learnt is while we panic on hearing explosions suddenly, that’s the environment these men are living in,” For over 45 days, the team journeyed to its shooting location through the road on which the Pulwama 2019 attack occurred, adds Siva.

The team shot a lot in the premises of the 44 Rashtriya Rifles unit which the late officer commanded. “A lot of Tamil speakers who were off-duty came to greet us and we tried to understand their lives because these were the men who would actually go on missions. Moreover, the Rashtriya Rifles unit would suddenly launch itself into an operation. Even when we were shooting, they would assemble in a flash, get on a military van, and go on a mission.” No words could describe the anxiety in not knowing if and when they would return, he adds.

Some areas of Kashmir were deemed so sensitive that the team had three layers of protection while shooting. Siva narrates how, while the team were shooting indoors, the soldiers would be readying to carry out a secret operation elsewhere. “Whereas, in other places in Kashmir, the summer mornings seemed very pleasant; you can roam around and meet both locals and tourists. I found the locals to be very casual and innocent. They are all trying their best to earn a livelihood,” he adds.

Now, Vijay’s dialogue in G.O.A.T, “Thuppakki-ya pudeenga, Siva (Hold the gun, Siva),” seems all the more meta when you learn how, to add to the realism, the team trained Siva by using real AK 47s. “I somehow managed to shoot within the target, but hitting the bullseye is something that needs a lot of training.” Except for the shots that feature the soldiers firing their weapons, the makers had the actors using real guns. “Using real weapons seemed relatively easier than the prop guns because these props are heavier,” says Siva.

Siva’s eyes light up talking about how these collective efforts from the film’s team got validation. On October 23, the makers held a special screening of the film for Army personnel, which included high-ranking officers and jawans. “During the intermission, an officer said, ‘You are in the wrong profession,’ and after the film, added ‘I am once again offering you a chance to join us; what do you say?’ See, this is the biggest award I could have gotten for this role. These are soldiers who went to action for real, and to get such praise from them validated our efforts,” he shares.

Those who are aware of Major Mukund’s story can guess at the tear-jerker of a climax that is awaiting us in Amaran. “We have seen similar endings in many Hindi and English films. However, here, we tried something fresh with the treatment of the scene. Nevertheless, it will surely leave you with a heavy heart.”

Amaran releases in theatres on October 31

Published - October 25, 2024 04:59 pm IST