The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : I am a socially conscious person, says Vinu Chakravarthe

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 07, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

I am a socially conscious person, says Vinu Chakravarthe

S.R. Ashok Kumar

I have decided to write a script and direct the film next year. That is my ambition

Vinu Chakravarthe

Vinu Chakravarthe began his film career as a writer. But he is now known for the character roles he has played. The actor has worked in several Tamil and other language films, alongside leading actors in the industry. He talks about his work, early years in filmdom, and his likes and dislikes.

I am a socially conscious person. If I see anybody doing anything wrong I get agitated and angry. As an actor I try to tell people how one should behave in society. So, I try to be as good as possible.

I was born in Usilampattivillage. When I was 10 years old I came to Chennai and studied in Wesley High School. I did my graduation from A.M. Jain College. I worked as a reserve sub-inspector for nearly six months and as a stationmaster for 6 years, before I was even 26.

I wanted to be a writer in films, so when I was working as a stationmaster in Mysore I joined director Puttanakanagal as his assistant. His film `Parasangathe Kannda Thimma' was to be made in Tamil as `Rosapoo Ravikkaikari'. I came to Chennai for that film and have now written the script for nearly 5 films and acted in several films.

When I was working in the script department I got an opportunity to act in the film `Gopurangal Saivathillai'. It became a hit. At that time director Bharathiraja told me that he had initially nurtured ambitions of becoming an actor but had changed track and become a director. But when you have a hit film try to do more roles, he said. Script and direction could be done any time. So I took his advice and started to act in more films.

I have now acted in several Tamil films, 25 Malayalam films, and half-a-dozen Telugu films.

Of all the films I have acted in I like `Rosapoo Ravikkaikari', `Vandichakkaram', `Enga Ooru Pattukkaran', `Guru Sisyan', `Annamalai' and `Manithan' most.

I have acted with Rajinikanth in nearly 20 films. All my grandchildren are his fans, and they have a collection of his films which they watch regularly. They live in Canada and London.

Among actors I like Suriya, Vikram and Vijay. I also like the work of Arya and Barath. Among actresses I would choose Sridevi, Sripriya, Saritha, Banupriya and Sonia Agarwal as my favourites. Among directors my favourites are Cheran, Saran, Visnuvardhan and Misskin.

In my spare time I write scripts. I have nearly 30 scripts in hand and am waiting for a good producer who will make one of them into a film.

I have decided that I would write a script and direct the film next year. That is my ambition. I hope I will be able to fulfil it.

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