The non-hero hero

There’s less than an hour to go for the grand music launch of Shamitabh (which released this week) at a five-star hotel in Mumbai. Still in his jeans and a casual floral shirt, Dhanush, the star of the film, is racing against time to ready for the big event. A black suit laid out neatly on the bed in his room and the shoes tossed on the carpet wait to be donned. The star’s PR team informs me that he also has a song rehearsal before he takes the mike in the evening. Dhanush clarifies that he’ll be singing a Tamil song as a tribute to legendary composer Ilaiyaraja and not the popular Kolaveri di that people outside of south India still identify him with. “In my heart that song is over. I’m through with it. I’m thankful that song happened to me. It was a blessing but it’s been four years now, it’s time to move on,” he says, firmly silencing anyone who asks him to hum a few lines.

Yet, he admits that when he made his Bollywood debut in 2013 with Aanand L Rai’s Raanjhanaa (2013) , the audience only knew him as “that Kolaveri guy” and, to some extent, superstar Rajinikanth’s son-in-law. At the time, Dhanush already had an enviable body of work in Tamil cinema and, at 29, was one of the youngest actors to win a National Award for his film Aadukalam (2011). That didn’t stop Bollywood award shows from showering the seasoned star with ‘best newcomer’ accolades. Looking back, Dhanush says he didn’t look at the honour as an oversight of his achievements. Instead, it made up for the fact that he didn’t win an award when he debuted at 16 in 2002. “It was quite cute,” he says, with a smile. “I think it was a great message from god saying that no matter where you are or what you do, there’s always more to learn and you’re always a newcomer. I really enjoyed it. That’s the only award that was pending,” he adds.

In spite of Raanjhanaa’s success, it has taken Dhanush a while to make his second Bollywood outing. He turned down close to 30 scripts before signing Shamitabh , a film he quickly said yes to. “This time I’m very calm and relaxed. Last time there were too many things to worry about. I worried the most about Aanand L Rai [the director of the film]. He invested so much on a new guy just because of his conviction,” he explains. His biggest concern, the first time round, was his non-existent knowledge of Hindi. It didn’t help that he was playing a street-side Romeo in Benaras. Dubbing his lines for the film was most challenging. It took him almost a week to crack the pronunciations, whereas he can dub an entire Tamil film in five hours straight.

“This is just his humility. I’m sure if he had to pick up Mandarin, he’d pick up his lines in half an hour. He’s a very, very fast learner,” says R Balki, the director of Shamitabh . Luckily for Dhanush, he speaks little Hindi in this film. He plays a mute actor who is voiced by Amitabh Bachchan’s character. The film is about the ego tussle between these two men and their fight for credit. According to Balki, this proved to be a great challenge for Dhanush. “He had to say all his lines to Mr Bachchan’s voice without acting like him; the expressions had to be his own. No one else could have played this part like he has,” he adds.

In the film, Dhanush plays a superstar, and one can safely call him a superstar off-screen as well. But he has often reiterated that he doesn’t qualify as “hero material”. In the past, the five-foot-five-inch tall actor has expressed his doubts about pulling off the role of a corporate high-flyer or a sportsman. “I just know it. You can see it. It’s right there. I’m not what you call hero material. I’m just really lucky to have met the right directors at the right time. God has given me more than I deserve,” he says. Balki is quick to point out that Dhanush is being unnecessarily modest. “He’s an original. He may not have a lot of qualities like the others, but the others don’t have what he has. He knows how different he is and that is his greatest strength.”

He gained legions of north Indian fans as the stalker-lover Kundan in Raanjhanaa, he is sure to now reach superstar status with his second Hindi movie.

COMMENT NOW