An Exclusive Interview With Arjun

Arjun on his passion for films

Tell us about Ottran?
Ottran is a fast and racy action film. I play Karthik a RAW agent who fights against terrorism and underworld. There is no dull moment in the film, which moves at rapid pace and is directed by Ilamkannan who was an assistant to Shankar.
It will be an all out action with adventure, romance and good songs. The fight scenes are well choreographed by Peter Haynes. Praveen Mani’s music is peppy and there is an item number picturised on Tejeswari a Mumbai model and me.

What really happened to Parasuram , your earlier release directed by you, which flopped miserably?
Like all humans I too tend to make mistakes at times. But then I take failures in my stride, learn from mistakes and move on.

Is this optimistic nature in you that helped you to survive for such a long time?
Absolutely. Life is full of hope and the best thing is to think positive and do your best. My philosophy in life is - “Don’t dream about what you want to do but go ahead and achieve it!”

The trade and your fans call you the “Action King”. How did this happen?
I was born in Bangalore and started my film career with four or five Kannada films. But in 1984, I came down to the then Madras and did a small Tamil film called Nandhri which was an average hit. During those days I did a lot of small budget Telugu action films where I had to just fight the baddies.

  What attracted you to Tamil films?
To tell you honestly Chennai has a rich tradition and is one of the finest film making centres in the world. Those days Tamil was far more superior than Telugu technically. And Tamil is the best South Indian language as far as an actor is concerned, because the command of the language can be seen in our dialogues on screen. There is a sort of manliness in Tamil language and I feel comfortable, delivering those lines.

  Were things easy in Tamil films?
When I entered Tamil films Rajni sir and Kamal sir had just become mega stars and it was impossible for any youngster to be taken seriously by the audience. And remember that I was short and did not have the conventional chocolate hero looks.

  Then how did you manage to be successful in Tamil?
I thought that I should work to my strength. Sevakan, Pratap and later, Gentlemen and Jai Hind were all commercial films with a social message or patriotism. My image has been moulded from all these movies. Admittedly my fans love my action scenes because I can do a lot of stunts that normal people can’t.

   Do you have any role models?
My role model has been Bruce Lee and in my early films I have shamelessly copied his kind of very difficult stunt scenes.

  How are you facing competition from the young actors doing action films?
Just because younger heroes have arrived on the scene, it does not mean that I am too old to do stunt scenes. Please go and see Ezhumalai, where I have done some terrific action scenes. The new breed of action heroes has made me concentrate more on my work. Like what I told you earlier, my work is my passion and whenever I see another hero perform well, I sent him a bouquet, wishing him all the best.


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