Vijay Sethupathi interview: ‘Cinema is not just about screams and whistles’

When I meet Vijay Sethupathi at Prasad Studios in Chennai, he is wrapping up a day of filming for Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s Pocket Novel. It is 6pm and the actor hasn’t had lunch yet. His team is milling around, helping him get out of make up and in his caravan, I notice a set of weights, a keyboard, and a stack of neatly arranged books. This is the actor in his natural habitat — a performer who has averaged at least four releases a year for over a decade. 

He will be making his Tamil web-series debut later this month with Muthu Engira Kaattaan on JioHotstar, reuniting with friend and collaborator M Manikandan, who previously directed him in Aandavan Kattalai and Kadaisi Vivasayi. Manikandan is credited as the creator of the series, and shares direction credits with B Ajith Kumar.

Vijay Sethupathi In ‘Muthu Engira Kaattaan’
| Photo Credit:
JioHotstar

“This story sort of healed me,” Sethupathi says. He harkens back to a time when he felt stuck after the pandemic, and brings up something he learnt through Distance Healing. “I was told then that we are not clouds, but the sky. Clouds are something that simply come and go in our lives. When I read the script of Kaattaan, I felt like the clouds in my life cleared and I was able to see the sky. It cleansed me,” he reflects. 

A noir-folk thriller, the web series unfolds in a sleepy village whose inhabitants are rattled when a severed human head is discovered. We follow two policemen attempting to unravel the identity behind it. The first two episodes, a fantastic coming together of dark comedy, absurd humour, and a police procedural, keep us guessing; who really was Muthu?

“I do not set out to do something with the mindset that it is going to be ‘amazing’. It feels egoistic to me,” says the actor, when asked if he feels any pressure to deliver something path-breaking yet again with Manikandan. “This is not what someone should be thinking of, especially while pursuing art. I am just doing my job, and what is important is to do it wholeheartedly,” he says while acknowledging the comfort of working with frequent collaborators like, Manikandan or Thiagarajan Kumararaja, with whom he worked earlier in Super Deluxe (2019). “There is freedom… I can talk openly, have discussions, and I know I will not be judged,” he adds.

Vijay Sethupathi as Shilpa in Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s ‘Super Deluxe’, a role which won him the National Award
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Beginning his acting career with Chennai based theatre group, Koothu-P-Pattarai, Vijay Sethupathi went on to star in several short films, a Tamil TV serial, and played supporting roles in movies before his big break as the lead in Karthik Subbaraj’s Pizza. A 2020 profile of his in The Hindu dubbed him the face of a new wave in Tamil cinema, where his constant desire for re-invention helped set him apart from his peers. He has played the protagonist, the antagonist, dabbled in genres across the spectrum, and was also last seen in the silent film Gandhi Talks. 

“Short films, TV shows, films or even web series — the format can be anything, but the audience should not be bored. They should find it fascinating. A project, irrespective of the format, has to excite me as well. Acting is the only job I know, and there really is no formula I follow to be different or anything else,” he says.

For him, a day on the set is like a puzzle. “When you walk in, you know what the scene is, but you don’t know how you are going to do it. When we unlock this puzzle, there is a sense of comfort, an achievement of sorts. It feels like finally being able to make an angry girlfriend laugh, after trying hard to impress her,” he laughs. 

During the conversation, I bring up how his filmography features a touch of romance and slice-of-life, particularly in Aandavan Kattalai (2016) and Kaadhalum Kadandhu Pogum (2016). “Do you know today marks 10 years since Kaadhalum Kadandhu Pogum was released?” he asks. We discuss the film, and how it continues to be celebrated among cinephiles, for how it tackles companionship, camaraderie, and the underlying romance of it all.  Aandavan Kattalai too, he points out, had a sweet, subtle romance that slowly comes together in the end, something that he loved about the film.

The actor with Trisha in ‘96’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

“I have done so many love stories, and however many I do, or everyone does…theeradhadhu andha kaadhal dhaan (Love is seemingly endless),” he says, waxing lyrical about his love for the genre. He points out the variety of love stories that feature in his films, right from Soodhu Kavvum (2013), where he falls in love with a woman from his imagination, and Idharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara (2013), where he is head over heels for his neighbour, to the hard-hitting Ka Pae Ranasingham (2020), about a wife struggling to bring back her husband’s body from abroad, the absurd comedy Naanum Rowdy Dhaan (2015), and the smash-hit 96 (2018).

As the pan-Indian cinema frenzy continues in the country, Sethupathi is no stranger to it as well, having starred in the blockbuster film Jawan(2023) alongside Shah Rukh Khan. “The progression to making pan-Indian films feels natural, and it is something that I welcome. Of course, there will be some complaints, but isn’t it a good thing when a film becomes a film for everyone, and gets celebrated by all?” he asks. “To me, it feels like a cultural exchange,” he states. 

The actor brings up the example of his own film Maharaja (2024), one that enjoyed commercial success across the country, and also broke records in China. “We might think people see a film only for the story, but there is so much more they must have observed, Our homes, food, relationships, economic status, transport, education…it isn’t just a story that transcends borders, but the film also serves as a documentation of life and culture of the era we are in,” he explains. 

He recalls something that filmmaker SP Jananathan, who directed him in Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai (2015) and Laabam (2021), believed in. “He always said cinema isn’t just entertainment; it educates us in many ways. I believe that too. It’s not just about claps and whistles, it depends on what you take away from a film. If one crore people watch it, at least 10 will carry something from it in the form of a lyric that moved them, or the spark to become a doctor, a scientist, or even joining the Army. A two-and-a-half-hour film can plant many such seeds,” he says. 

Vijay Sethupathi in ‘Maharaja’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

At this point in his career, with over 50 films and counting, I ask him what does success mean to him.

“How a film runs is what success is,” he puts it simply. “We truly work so hard, and there are so many people on set deeply invested in the film’s success. People assume that if a film runs well, the actors are the ones enjoying all of it. There is a producer, there are people selling popcorn in theatres and most importantly, there are other actors who have played smaller roles,” he says.

Having played several supporting roles in films before his big break as a lead actor, he dwells on this. “For actors who have done small roles, starring in a film that does well becomes a marker of sorts. It creates an identity. We can write the name of these films behind the photos we hand out. And we can move forward for better roles,” the actor adds. “It is good for everyone when a film does well. Everyone benefitting will pay tax as well and it is good for the government too,” he chuckles. 

While Muthu Engira Kaattaan is set to release on March 27, Sethupathi has a slew of films coming up as well. “I look forward to everything I am working on. Why will I work on projects that do not excite me?” he asks. “Puri Jagannadh’s Slum Dog- 33 Temple Road is a script which excited me. I am also doing Balaji Tharaneedharan’s next, Mani(Ratnam) sir’s next as well as the second season of Farzi, and of course, Pocket Novel,” he says, adding, “It is due to my stories and my directors that my work blossoms beautifully. If I am not excited, I simply cannot work.” 

Muthu Engira Kaattaan will be available to stream on JioHotstar from March 27