‘Playing Anbu in Vada Chennai was easier than my role in Maari’

Dressed in a blue mandarin-collared shirt, Dhanush meets us in his Asuran look. “The film is almost complete and contrary to rumours I have been coming across, I do not play a double role in Asuran. The story takes place in different timelines,” he immediately clarifies. He is pumped about his latest release The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir, that has been doing well in theatres. The actor plays Ajatashatru Lavash Patel, who travels across Europe inside a wardrobe and a suitcase. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name.

Dhanush, being an avid reader, tells us that he didn’t read the book. “I only read the script. We had made some tweaks in the story to suit the big screen. When I read the character sketch of Aja, I had various ideas of portraying the character. I had a lot of learning and unlearning while working on the film. The unlearning part helped me avoid doing the mistakes that have gone unnoticed to me in my 17-year career,” he laughs.

Playing Aja reminded the actor of his childhood. He opens up. “I had a difficult childhood as my family wasn’t well off. The kids in my neighbourhood used to have battery cars. They never let me play with them. My brother Selvaraghavan used to make me cars using cardboards and twines. Back then, buying a battery car was my biggest ambition. The character of Aja in the film, too, is similar,” he says. Point out to him that he is one of the very few persons in Chennai currently to own the prestigious Rolls Royce, he says with a huge grin, “There is a saying in Tamil, ‘Yaanai eh vaangidalaam aana adha katti theeni poda mudiyaadhu’ (You can buy an elephant, but you cannot feed it). That has been my experience with the car. I own the Ghost 3 Series and was enthusiastic about it in the beginning. Now, I drive it for the heck of it. There are better cars at one third of its price. The worst part is no one buys this second hand.” 

Back to films, he says that he has signed another Hollywood film. “I had another three offers. I couldn’t accept them due to my commitments here. When I entered you said, ‘it’s been a long time since we met’. My kids say the same. Apart from Asuran, my film with Karthik Subbaraj will start rolling in August. I have another project with Durai Senthilkumar. Selvaraghavan’s next will be with me. The project is in its early stages. We will have to start Vada Chennai 2 as well,” he elaborates.

Earlier, in an interview with DT Next, music composer Anirudh Ravichander said that he would be collaborating with Dhanush this year. “Yes, but the project is in a very premature stage. But, it is certainly happening,” he assures.

Dhanush has juggled across offbeat and commercial films over the years. “When you ask me if it was difficult for me to play Anbu in Vada Chennai or Maari, I will say it’s Maari. Anbu has the same character graph throughout the film. Whereas, Maari was like walking a tightrope,” he replies.

His recent selfie with his kids in England went viral on social media. When asked if he visited the country for the cricket World Cup, he says, “No, that was an old post, but from England. I couldn’t go for the World Cup this year. When I was looking for a picture to post on Father’s Day that is the first pic I came across and put it up on my social media page.”

We heard from reliable sources that his eldest son Yatra is a brilliant rapper. Are Dhanush and Ani the inspirations, we ask. “Yatra listens to world music. One day, he listens to African music and on another, he listens to another genre and I believe he has picked it up from there,”he concludes.