Actor Vijay Sethupathi won at the 67th National Awards for his portrayal of a transgender person in the Tamil film, Super Deluxe (2019). He hopes it will help people, especially transgender community, to understand the real intention behind making the film, which was to remove stigma around the community.

After the film’s release, Sethupathi had got several calls, chiding him for disrespecting transgender community. “We thought they would feel good about the film as we had made it with so much respect. But they misunderstood it,” he says.

The actor was shooting in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, when he got to know about the Best Supporting Actor honour. “When I work, I don’t expect any awards. The news of winning the National Film Award came as a surprise. When people started wishing me, I didn’t even know how to react,” the actor tells us.

“I became a hero in 2010, and started getting awards from 2013. I went to award functions for two years, and slowly started cutting down, one by one,” shares the actor, adding that he will surely go to pick up the National Film Award.

He gives the credit for the win to director Thiagarajan Kumararaja, who captured the complexities of his character, Shilpa. “I respect the way it was written. Kumararaja is the man who put a lot of effort in creating the character,” says the 43-year-old.

Reflecting on the journey of bringing Shilpa to life on screen, the actor says, “Whenever I play a character, I become a teacher and the character becomes a student. But in this film, it was vice versa.”