A lot has changed feels Ashok Selvan, as I catch up with him after nearly three years. Back in 2014, “everything was working and everything was nice,” he says. His films Soodhu Kavvum, Thegidi and Pizza II: Villa had all succeeded, and Ashok felt he’d figured out a solid career path.
But when 144 and Savaale Samaali failed, “it put tremendous pressure back on” him. It was his first brush with failure. “These were films I didn’t have the mind or the skill set for. So I completely submitted myself to it,” he recalls.
Not that he regrets making those decisions. “It set in motion a low time. I was living alone back then to prepare for a role and that film got dropped. Even personally, things were looking bleak.”
It was then that he visited his friend — music composer Nivas Prasanna — who told him about a film on an “average” guy. After having played characters like that of a writer (Pizza II) and detective (Thegidi), Ashok too was looking to play a more relatable character. “That’s when Nivas narrated a one-liner about a new film he had signed. It was about the average joe… a middle-bencher who is neither smart enough to be a class topper, nor a rebel who sits on the last row. I felt like it was about… me.”
So he approached its director Gnanavel and asked if he could be a part of it. Gnanavel was only too happy to sign him on, and they began shooting last July. Just when things had started looking up, the series of unfortunate events continued. “This time, the issues were external. Just look back at last year. Jayalalithaa ma’am passed away, the Vardah cyclone happened, followed by the Jallikattu issue. Just when I felt the storm had passed, the GST issue hit us and it led to the theatre shut down.”
With the release of Kootathil Oruthan,he hopes things get back into shape. He promises a release more often too. This delay (his last film released in 2015) is because he needs to be extra cautious with every decision. Being an outsider, he believes he needs to guarantee the audience a certain quality to create a trust in him. “I’ve said no to at least 50 horror-comedies,” he jokes. “Some of them have gone on to become hits too, but they had nothing to offer me.”
Going commercial
He’s at a stage where he’s looking for interesting and honest scripts, which, “fall within the constraints of the commercial space,” he says, adding, “I’m playing the game... at least for the next two years. I need to create a market for myself.”
And after that? “Then I’ll do a list of films that I truly love. When I take those scripts to producers now, they very politely ask for something ‘more mainstream’.”
A familiar face
At a nascent stage of stardom, he jokes that people have started to recognise him. “If it’s not for my films, it’s for something else. When I went down south, a man congratulated me for my bowling skills. He had only seen me in CCL.”
Not that it’s a problem. He is currently working on a crime thriller with Ananda Krishnan, the director of Metro, and believes that he has garnered enough goodwill to get interesting films green-lighted by producers.
Lessons learnt
What has he learnt in the process? “I wish I had learnt how to dance earlier,” he says seriously. “I thought I won’t do films with songs, so I never committed to dancing or martial arts, even when I had all the time in the world. I’m learning both now and I discovered that it has helped my acting too. I was a rebel…in a stupid way.”
And what more? “I also realised I’m very bad at the business side of it. I still don’t know how to ask people for money, even if I deserve it. One needs to be prepared for that. No one will pay you if you don’t.”