Vikram is such a humble and giving person – Upen Patel

You’re in Shankar’s Ai. How did that happen?
I feel so privileged that I’ll be making my Tamil film debut under Shankar’s direction. It all happened when my manager received a call that the director had a project in mind, and was keen to cast me in it. I was on from the minute I heard that it was his project. Later, when I was briefed about my role, it blew me away. I am not allowed to talk about my role or anything related to the film, but all I can say it’s an incredibly good role.

How do find working in the south?
The experience, so far, has been beautiful beyond words. Actors and directors in the south are so humble, which is quite a contrast to Bollywood. The language has posed a few problems, but I am determined to pick it up. I have an instructor on the set who explains to me the meaning of my dialogues and prepares me for the delivery. However, not knowing the language is only a small blip because cinema is about projecting emotions and storytelling, which have a universal language.

How has it been working with your co-star Vikram?
Vikram is such a humble and giving person. You’d never know he’s such a big star. No airs, no attitude. The thing about Tamil actors is that most of them are artists. They are very rich in the craft of acting. Take Vikram, for instance. Look at the diverse range of roles he has essayed.

So, you’re here to stay?
Right now, everything is new to me here. I’d be happy to have a good career going in Tamil films, but let’s see if that happens. Movies here are original, both in content and screenplay. When I was last in Chennai, I saw a film titled Pizza. What a story! I don’t remember the name of the lead actor, but, god, how brilliantly he played the role.
Are your wild, partying and womanizing days behind you? Have you finally grown?
It is true I had that image, and I must say at the time, I even deserved it. I was young, reckless and flamboyant. The only things one would read about me were my good looks, my partying ways and the women I was seen with. But there was more to me. I have worked with several top directors, but none of that was being talked about. Slowly, I found myself moving away from that environment as I concentrated more on honing my acting skills and my modelling assignments.

Where have all the women gone?
Well, as unbelievable as it may sound, there is no girl in my life presently. I thought I’d be with 10 Miss Wrongs and then find the one Miss right. But, I am over that phase now. There is nothing more important in a relationship than mutual respect. My search is on, and when I do finally find the girl, it will be for keeps.
How about your co-star in AiAmy Jackson?
Well, she’s a lovely girl and very beautiful. I have a great equation with her.

You are a foodie. Any food discoveries in Chennai yet?
For Ai, I have been on a crazy diet of grilled chicken and broccoli. My role requires me to be lean and mean. I am also a huge fan of the biryani, served on a banana-leaf platter, I had at a restaurant in Chennai.
We hear you’ve been signed on to play the lead in a French film…
Yes, this happened through my agent in the UK. The film, an action thriller, will be directed by French filmmaker Yann Danh, and we should begin shooting by the end of this year.

Vikram I First Look Coming Soon

Get ready to experience the most fascinating event of Indian Cinema in 2013. Well, this isn’t something about the awards ceremony or any film release, but the launch of first look poster.

It is all about Shankar’s I that stars Chiyaan Vikram and Amy Jackson in lead roles. The film is produced by Aascar Ravichandran of Aascar Films International. Director Shankar is spending huge time on getting the first look posters revealing the image of Vikram and Amy in a stunning manner.

It’s a do-or-die film for Vikram as almost all his previous films have turned out to be a box office disaster in box office that includes ‘Thaandavam’. Earlier, it was mentioned that the film is completely based on the world of advertisement with a twist in the second half. AR Rahman is scoring music for this film.

What Cooking between Vikram and Rana

Vikram is not a kind of actor who involve in controversies but recently an interview to North India made him to rub shoulders with Rana Daggubatti. When the interviewer asked him “South stars have never made it big in Bollywood, except for Kamal Haasan, as compared to the female stars. Why aren’t their male counterparts branching out of the south film industries?” Vikram replied that “Kamal Haasan had Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981), which was the biggest hit that year. Then he had Saagar (1985). After that he hasn’t done anything. It’s not easy to leave your business down south. You get paid a lot in the south. Here you have to start from scratch. For girls it’s different as they do their PR well. Look at Rana Daggubati. He started in the Telugu industry and came to Bollywood but he hadn’t made any headway in the south. Now he’s not bothered about the Telugu industry. To work in Bollywood, I have to leave everything and come here. I am doing a film for Shankar, which is being made at R145 cr and I can’t just leave that.”

This comment in turn irked Rana Dagubatti and he tweeted “Dear Mr.Vikram I see you quote me and my directions in quite a few media interactions of yours recently. It is best if you focus on your Career that isn’t headed in the right direction with close to 10 odd disasters in your kitty I’m barely 2 1/2yrs old as an actor and You are almost close to 25yrs. Stay put on urs as I am on mine ;) not take anything away still a huge fan of few of your films .

There is a saying that actors from south should be very careful when giving a interview to North Indian ,recently Kajal got into the controversy and now vikram.

A huge set for Shakar-Vikram’s I in Hyderabad

If u categorize Shankar’s movies list you will find nothing, because he is unpredictable. He started with Gentleman in 1993 and his last flick was Nanban. In this span of 10 years, Shankar entertained us with almost every genre. Enthiran was expected to be high budget movie in Indian cinema and got applause from all categories of audiences for his technical brilliance.
Shankar is now working with versatile actor Vikram for “I”. There is a huge buzz on the budget of this movie as they say it is going to be more costly than Enthiran. Now “I” is on sets, and recently shifted to Hyderabad for their next schedule. As per close sources, in this schedule Shankar will shoot a song in Hyderabad Prasad Studio with 500 foreign artists, which is going to be a visual wonder.
Vikram pairs with Amy Jackson and A.R.Rahman has already delivered all the songs for this film. Cinematography will be done by P.C.Sriram and this film is produced by Venu Ravichandran under Aascar Films.

Will Vikram’s luck change with Shankar’s I?

He’s seen it all- Success and failure. Unarguably he is one of the finest actors of his generation and a complete rock-n-rolla persona.

But for too long now, he’d been lagging in the race to churn out hits. Trade feels that the actor has lost the all-important opening and only a super hit can bring him back in the reckoning.

After Anniyan, a super hit in 2005, Vikram had a spate of misses like Majaa, Bheema, Kanthaswamy, Raavanan, Rajapattai and Thaandavam. The only film which was break-even was Deivathirumagal. And last week Bejoy Nambiar’s David in which he shared screen space with Jiiva too fizzled out without much ado.

But Vikram’s next big release is Shankar’s I and a lot is riding on it. Industry feels that I will be surely be his comeback vehicle and the actor is heavily banking on this big budget extravaganza.

Remember that ace director Shankar had given Anniyan, one of Vikram’s biggest commercial successes. If anybody can salvage Vikram’s box-office status it is Shankar.

Shankar warns Amy Jackson again!

British bombshell Amy Jackson who is known to be quite a party animal was apparently requested by director Shankar to sober things down till the shooting of ‘I’ was complete. It may be recalled that Shankar had earlier said No to Amy’s partying ways. Shankar has again said a strict no-no to Amy’s all-nighters in order to get the best out of the actress the next morning.

It is believed that Amy celebrated her birthday with team of ‘I’, and that too was a teetotalling affair and she was resigned to just her birthday cake. Amy, along with Shankar and Vikram have travelled to the far east for a few schedules and later to Jodhpur and Australia before returning to Chennai.

Now Amy seems to have found some breathing space between her hectic schedule and is supposedly planning a trip to Pondy with her friends to catch up on what she’s been missing out on !

David Movie Review

Starring : Vikram, Jiiva, Tabu, Nassar, Lara Dutta, Isha Sharvani

Direction : Bejoy Nambiar

Music : Prasanth Pillai,Anirudh Ravixhander,Remo Fernandes

Production : Getaway films,Reliance entertainment

In the classic fable, these two unlike animals race each other to the finishing line. Now, the hare is ambitious and swift but also overconfident. The tortoise is slow but just as determined to win.

Bejoy Nambiar’s gorgeously packaged, well-acted but underwhelming David is like a split personality, racing on three different tracks exhibiting the skills and shortcomings of both these fellas.

On one hand, it is incredibly grand in its ideas and challenges the traditional structure of storytelling. On the other its uneven, often dragging pace and frantically shifting moods, unable to hold fort.

In terms of filmmaking, David is an uncompromised experiment and steers clear of comfort zones crediting its viewers’ capability to join dots without excessive spoon-feeding, a practice that eludes mainstream Hindi cinema.

The three stories, which extend through different time frames (1975, 1999, and 2010) and locations (London , Mumbai , Goa) take place simultaneously and though not directly connected bear thematic resemblance wherein all three Davids are battling an individual Goliath and share a unique but varying degree of relationship with their father.

David in 1970s London (Neil Nitin Mukesh Neil looks sufficiently turbulent and plays it subdued) is coming to terms with his highly dysfunctional surrogate family, unpleasant revelations about his past and a romantic upheaval (featuring a lovely but emotionally ineffective Monica Dogra) against the backdrop of Muslim mafia and Indian intelligence agents.

Shot entirely in black and white, it’s easily the most accomplished chapter among all three.

Hedonistic lifestyles, flower power in the passing, passionate encounters, faith-dictated zealousness, gruesome torture and gritty shootout sequences — this chunk of the story packs in a lot with its retro styling, assertive visuals and calm menace.

David in late 1990s Mumbai (Vinay Virmani conveys a convincing blend of innocence and exasperation) is a struggling musician and part-time tutor living with his father (Nassar, so effective in that one disturbing shaving scene), a devout Christian and two sisters (Sheetal Menon , Shweta Pandit do well in brief parts).

Their lives change for the worse after his dad is attacked by a bunch of Hindu fundamentalists (Rohini Hattangadi breathes venom through her eyes) who accuse him of promoting religious conversion.

Strong content notwithstanding, the Mumbai segment could do with better writing and consistency.

Considering its premise is religion-based acrimony and subjugation of minorities to achieve political mileage, the conversation is rather sloppy and lackluster. Also, I found the sub-plot featuring Lara Dutta quite unnecessary.

Nambiar, however, doesn’t mince words when it comes to likening religion-driven political parties to underwear in a scene preceding which David engages in a slo-mo brawl with a bunch of hoodlums amidst intense rainfall.

Incidentally, it pours frequently in this segment. That’s a lot of monsoon for February/March even in Mumbai. But climatic license is a hardly a crime if it generates such potent, classy frames.

But it’s fisherman David (Vikram. He’s mighty good. Can’t say the same about his segment) in Goa, circa 2010 who puts a spoke in the wheel of this otherwise high-adrenalin action-drama with his weird, politically incorrect humour and supernatural interludes.

So you have a perennially wasted lout punching random women in the face, picking fights in local bars and dangling between the counsel of his dad (a dorky Saurabh Shukla) and dost (Tabu by the virtue of being Tabu sparkles in a wishy-washy cameo)over pursuing a romance with his best friend’s (a pleasant Nishan) to-be-bride (Isha Sharvani , pristine and radiant as usual).

And pray, what’s with Satku Santa? These portions of David are so strange; they’re, well, ridiculous. Ever wondered what the stoner sequel to Kabhi Haan Kabhie Naa could be like? Look no further.

For all its eccentric offerings and lopsided hilarity (you do laugh a couple of times but it’s a sound of incredulity not tickle), none of it works and its sudden appearance especially after witnessing a cold-blooded execution in black and white is as awkward as Vikram’s Hindi.

This bouncing back and forth between characters and scenarios is always a risky deal and tests an individual’s capacity to refocus and reconnect. All the more when it mixes somber with slapstick. Ever been the unfortunate person sitting next to the one who has the remote control and keeps switching channels erratically? Yes, *that*!

Another side-effect of this disjointed plot technique is most characters never get enough space or time to truly blossom (There’s an interesting film somewhere in the underdeveloped plot of Iqbal Ghani’s real son.)

Nambiar realises the disadvantages of unorthodox narrative only too well. And so David relies on creating lingering moments instead –raw, stylish, stark or luminous almost like a spiffy music video accompanied by terrific sound and one of the best soundtracks of the year.

Like a neat wrestling sequence with Mast Kalander blasting in the background or the beautiful boat song on a serene night.

But a two and a half hour something overcrowded music video is taking it too far, isn’t it? A shorter, snappier David with a little less rambling and randomness may have led to a better payoff.

Still, there’s no denying Nambiar’s promise as an adventurous, aesthetically-sound filmmaker but his weak spot remains the same. His eye for dynamic visuals is yet to find its match in stories that speak.

Vikram, Shankar’s I shoot in Chennai

Shankar’s directorial titled I with Vikram in the lead role is currently being shot in Chennai where some key scenes are being shot. The ace director who happens to capture beautiful exotic locales is touring in and around Chennai for vital scenes on the lead actors Vikram and Amy Jackson.

Recently, the makers have canned an action sequence in China. Vikram has toned up his physique and he looks much younger. After the current schedule, Shankar will leave abroad for scouting unique picturesque locales for a song shooting.

I has cinematography by PC Sreeram, musical scores by AR Rahman, editing by Anthony. Aascar films is producing this romantic thriller.

Vikram's THAANDAVAM releases on September