As a child, Dhanush’s ultimate fantasy was to own the red remote-controlled toy car that his neighbour proudly bandied about. “I really wanted it,” he recalls, to a group of scribes assembled at a star hotel in Chennai, “So badly that I’d go ask him and he’d refuse to part with it.”
His brother, Selvaraghavan, noticing his younger brother’s desire, tried a trick. He’d take a used thread spool and try to shape it into something that looked like a car. “The days I’ve yearned for that red car I’d never forget.”
That yearning is what Dhanush thought of when he read the screenplay of The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir, his big Hollywood debut directed by Ken Scott that releases on Friday — interestingly on the same day that his Bollywood debut Raanjhana hit screens six years ago. The life of Ajatashatru, the character he plays in Fakir, reminded him of his own experiences. “I saw Ajah as a very relatable character,” he tells me, “The world he comes from, the lifestyle he leads and the priorities he has, everything is very similar to where I come from.”
The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir has met with reasonable success in the festival circuit, but Dhanush is still excited to see how his Indian fans will react to it. Considering his initial Tamil films saw him in dark and raw roles, was it intentional to keep his first Hollywood film colourful and light-hearted? “Had I planned things out, my life wouldn’t be as successful as it is now. There is some magic that protects and guides me. Be it Raanjhana or Fakir, they all just happened. I just met the right people at the right time.”
Dhanush in ‘The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Dhanush considers himself a spontaneous actor – it’s something that his Tamil fans have loved, in films like Pudhupettai, Aadukalam and Vada Chennai. But the actor could not take that time-tested route in Fakir. “The methodology there (in Hollywood) is different. I had to do every single thing repeatedly – which means that even if I gave my best in the first take, the makers go in for multiple takes. That was the case with all the actors. The biggest learning was doing the exact same thing many times, since I’m the sort of actor who does the same thing differently in multiple takes. I’d describe the experience akin to going to school – only this time, I had to unlearn a lot of things about acting before I started learning,” he explains.
‘English is just a medium to communicate in’
When the actor first debuted in Tamil – way back in 2002, in the coming-of-age Thulluvatho Ilamai – he wasn’t too convinced about his future as an actor. Over the years, he has grown, not just as an actor, but also as a person. “It took a lot of effort, since nothing comes naturally to me,” he grins, “But when something becomes part of your lifestyle, it isn’t effort.” He cites his lack of English-speaking skills during his initial years, and the work he put into it, as an example. “My English was pretty bad in 2005. To fix that, I got into the habit of reading English books. It would take me more than six months initially to read a book; I’d fall asleep before finishing a single chapter,” he recalls. But what egged him on was the need to learn a new language, and the fact that he was reading a story. “Stories always excited me. I continuously tried reading English books. When reading become a habit, it becomes less of an effort.”
He was filming Pudhupettai, one of his most acclaimed films, when most of his friends were talking about The Da Vinci Code. “Curiosity got the better of me, and I read that. I’m glad I did,” he says. It would spark the fire in ‘reader-u’ Dhanush (the actor is known to affix the ‘u’ in dialogues and lyrics). He soon caught up on James Patterson (”his chapters are easy to finish”), and when he discovered Jeffrey Archer and Conn Iggulden, his two favourite authors, he was (and still is) sold to reading. “Reading them, I understood how much time I had wasted without reading, and how much there is to catch up. All this helped hone my English skills over the years.”
“I’m sorry to say this, but it’s only in India that I have been looked down upon for my lack of English skills,” Dhanush says. | Photo Credit: Viditi Saxena
But he stills considers the language as only something he needs for communication. “I’m sorry to say this, but it’s only in India that I have been looked down upon for my lack of English skills. When I shot all over Europe for Fakir, they were actually surprised I could speak the language. At the end of the day, English is only a medium to communicate in,” he states.
But Tamil, the language he thinks in, is very dear to him. So much so that he has written the lyrics of many of his films, including for the Anirudh-composed Ilamai Thirumbudhey number in Rajinikanth’s recent release, Petta. “Every lyric in it was inspired by the charisma Rajini sir oozes in the song,” he says excitedly.
When going viral becomes second nature
Dhanush himself has received praise for a recent song of his, Rowdy Baby from his last release, Maari 2, clocking half a billion views already. But he dismisses comparisons to his 2012 viral hit Why this Kolaveri Di. “I think that’s an unfair comparison,” he feels, “Kolaveri defined the word viral. However, I’m happy that Rowdy Baby has done so well. Dancing in a Prabhu Deva-choreographed song was overwhelming, especially because I’m not a natural dancer. I think Sai Pallavi, who is a phenomenal dancer, got the better of me in this song…something I am happy about.”
He has still not caught up on his brother Selvaraghavan’s recently-released Suriya-starrer NGK, since he has been shooting around-the-clock for Vetrimaaran’s Asuran. “When I watch a Selvaraghavan film, I want my mind to be completely free, and I hope to do that in the next month,” he says. Dhanush has his hands full – after the film with Vetrimaaran, he will be teaming up with Selvaraghavan and Karthik Subburaj, besides films with Maari Selvaraj and Ramkumar. There’s also Vada Chennai 2,which he says is “surely on”. All this even as he awaits the release of Gautham Menon’s Ennai Nokki Paayum Thota, which has been held back for a long time. “Like you, I’m waiting for it as well,” he says.