In an interactive masterclass at the ongoing 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, multiple award-winning actor Vijay Sethupathi, in conversation with actor-politician Kushboo Sundar, asked everyone “not to take the conversations too seriously or as a class” while entering the stage. He was in Goa for the first-ever silent film, Gandhi Talks, to be played at the festival, and began by stating, “It’s not a class at all. I don’t even know what to do in front of a camera. Just treat me like one of you. Let’s create and share. And if you don’t understand my language, please refer to my face.”

The actor, who has showcased his talent in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi films, when asked if he is a method or a spontaneous actor, said, “I don’t know what the method of acting is. When a director is narrating a script, I wonder why he’s telling the story and why he wanted to make the story. I ask a lot of stupid questions. I understand the essence, and I try to understand the director who’s telling the story. But I don’t follow any formula.”

The actor, who recently played a villain in Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Jawan, said that he will take a break from playing antagonist characters: “There are many pressures and restrictions. They (makers or writers) try to stop the character from dominating the hero. (But now) I will take a break and focus on playing the protagonist and character roles.”

When the 45-year-old was asked if he always wanted to become an actor, Sethupathi explained, “I can’t focus on anything continuously, nor do I have the consistency to keep at one thing... During my childhood, I enrolled in learning how to play mridangam in T.Nagar, Chennai, but after one week, I quit the class. That’s how I am. My intention was to become a businessman and earn a lot of money. But I ended up here.”

Pointing out that everyone was formally dressed at the opening ceremony and only he was different in a blue shirt and jeans, the 45-year-old told Kushboo, “I looked like an alien that night... But everything designer is very expensive, and I am like this. I can’t be comfortable in a suit... But I was insecure when I was there, to be honest.”

Before becoming an actor, Sethupathi was an accountant in Dubai, and during the session, he thanked his wife, Jessy, for not letting him go back to his regular job: “I was just living, going with the flow. Then I fell in love during a wedding in India, got married, and my wife didn’t let me return to Dubai. Then cinema happened.”

The couple apparently met on social media in 2002, got married the following year, now are parents to two children: Surya and Shreeja.

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On screen, he’s called ‘energy bomb’ and ‘Ranveer Singh of the Marathi industry’ but there’s another side to Siddharth Jadhav. One that’s vulnerable and introspective. In a chat with us, the actor, who has been shaking up our social media feeds as much with his style as with his new projects, speaks to us about breaking the comedy stereotype, the new phase and the ups and downs in his career. Excerpts:

Throughout his initial years in Marathi cinema, Siddharth created a name for himself among the list of comic actors in the industry. But he gradually branched out into different roles with films like Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy, Razzakar, Dream Mall etc. Ask him what changed, and he replies, “As a person nothing changed drastically. People identify me as a comic actor, and I too know that comedy is my forte. But that’s not all. I am fortunate that people accepted my serious roles as nicely as they did my comic ones. Credit for this goes to the directors and writers who thought of me for these roles, especially Mahesh Manjrekar sir who was among the first people to recognize and execute a different side of mine on the big screen. He was also someone who told me that I had the talent of making people laugh when I laughed, and cry when I cried. I consider myself fortunate to have worked with people who saw beyond the stereotype that I had come to be associated with.”

Despite his best efforts, many of Siddharth’s hatke films didn’t work at the box office. The actor, who is otherwise full of energy, went through a low phase between 2013 and 2017. “Although I was doing a play, Gela Udat, and a TV show, I was devastated that my films weren’t working. These four years were an extremely low phase for me. I didn’t know what to do and life seemed to have stopped at one point. It was like being stuck on a boat in the middle of the lake. But my brother, Dr Lavesh Jadhav, told me something that I haven’t stopped following till date,” he says.

“Mahesh sir said that we only think that nothing is happening because there’s no work to do. But there’s so much work that you can do work on yourself, meet people, write, develop your skills. That helped me dive from that stuck boat and swim to the shore. In the process, I left the baggage from Siddharth Jadhav 1.0 behind because had I carried that with me, I would’ve drowned. So, to anyone who may be going through such a phase right now, I want to say that stay put and be strong, this too shall pass,” shares Siddharth.

In 2017, things changed for Siddharth with the release of Faster Fene. Then came Simmba, which reunited Siddharth with his Golmaal director Rohit Shetty and had him sharing the screen with Ranveer Singh. “Aditya Sarpotdar, Kshitij Patwardhan, Riteish Deshmukh these people believed in me and gave me an opportunity in Faster Fene. I won’t ever forget that. With Simmba, of course, came wider recognition. These were not things that I had planned. They happened. All I did was to give my best to whatever I did and just enjoyed the moment,” he says.

Siddharth’s tryst with big-budget Hindi films continued with special appearances in Radhe and Sooryavanshi. He will soon be working with Rohit Shetty and Ranveer Singh again in Cirkus, and he has a silent film titled Gandhi Talks set to release next year. “Cirkus is a family entertainer where I play a fun character. On the other hand, Gandhi Talks is a very interesting film by director Kishor Belekar. It’s a silent film, which also features Vijay Sethupathi, Aditi Rao Hydari and Arvind Swamy. The music is by A R Rahman. What else does one need in a film?” asks Siddharth.

While he has learned to ignore trolls on social media today, there was a point when they affected him. Sharing that he is open to criticism of his work, Siddharth adds, “Personal attacks are something I don’t like. People have taken jibes at the way I look and questioned how someone like me can even be called an actor. I would feel bad before, but not anymore. Criticize my work if you find it bad, but avoid personal attacks. That said, I realise that people need an outlet to vent their frustrations and often, public figures are at the receiving end. Yes, there are some people who troll others just for the heck of it. But I’ve learned not to fixate on that. Today, even if someone writes something bad about me on a photo I have posted, I like the comment and move on.”

Thirty years after Singeetham Srinivasa Rao's Kamal Haasan and Amala-starrer Pushpak, Marathi filmmaker Kishore Belekar is gearing up for a Bollywood debut with a silent black comedy, Gandhi Talks, which revolves around three characters in need of money.

Kishore, who has previously directed the acclaimed 2013 Marathi film Yeda featuring Reema Lagooo and Ashutosh Rana, revealed to Mirror that the film is set in South Mumbai and that watching Pushpak in 1995 fuelled a desire to make a similar film. “I was also experimenting with theatre at the time and had been meaning to write something in the same genre. Since there are no dialogues in the film, I spent 11 years writing the script, emphasising every scene to perfection. It was difficult but exciting,“ the filmmaker said, adding that he completed the script as recently as last September and will now start work on the casting.

“I want to start filming by April and will be doing multiple workshops with my actors to prep up,“ Kishore adds. The film's background score will be pre-recorded to help the actors perform better.

Meanwhile, Kishore touched base with Singeetham six months ago to seek his blessings. “He was happy to know that I am making a film in a similar genre as Pushpak. I will be meeting him soon to seek further guidance,“ he signs off.