INTERVIEW
Moving ahead with zest
MALATHI RANGARAJAN
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Ajay, the man who plays Aditya in the daily soap, `Kolangal,' has arrived.
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A POIGNANT FILM: Ajay and Sonali Kulkarni in "White Rainbow"
The young man rushing towards the protagonist with menacing eyes and reckless rage manages to stir you out of your supine posture and mid-evening lethargy in front of the idiot box.
The tele-serial is `Kolangal,' where Ajay plays Aditya, an unscrupulous, up and coming businessman.
"The channel's (Sun TV) reach is amazing ... in a matter of days I became a household name," laughs Ajay. On the Hindi film and television fronts he is known by his original name, Gaurav Kapoor. "But in the South I thought people would relate better to a name like Ajay, so ... " he smiles, as we settle down for a tête-à-tête in his apartment one morning. You had earlier seen him as Gaurav Kapoor in Dharan Mandrayar's `White Rainbow' (`Shwethambhar' in Hindi), that heart-rending film on Vrindavan widows, opposite Sonali Kulkarni. Around the same time you had noticed Ajay coming out with a sensitive portrayal in `Agni Sakshi,' the Tamil version of the Hindi soap `Kora Kagaz,' that had Renuka Sahni in the lead. Ajay did Salil Ankola's role in Tamil. ("It was too good a chance ... one I couldn't resist," he recalls.)
Ajay is a busy actor these days, though his eyes are on the big screen. It's not often that you see a guy from Mumbai enter the Tamil fray and making it here. In that, Ajay is unique.
The `Kolangal' craze
Ajay is the spoilt, selfish foe of heroine Abhi (Devyani) in `Kolangal.' The suave looks are anything but villainous, yet he is making it big as the bad man! And what's more surprising is that Ajay himself dubs for his role in `Kolangal.' " When I began working in `Kolangal,' director Thiruchelvam tried out 20 voices to dub for me, but he wasn't satisfied with any. Out of the blue he called me up one day to say that he planned to make me talk my part. I was sceptical at first ... It was a 19-minute, fiery entry for me for which the assistant and I slogged it out at the dubbing theatre for a continuous 81/2 hours," smiles the effervescent actor.
Ajay heaps praise on Thiruchelvam, the writer-director of `Kolangal.' "That man's got vision ... and an incredible screenplay sense. " he goes on. `Kolangal,' you hear, is a major draw in the Telugu and Malayalam belts too. "In a world ruled by TRPs, a dubbed serial topping the charts in Kerala, and doing extremely well in Andhra is something unheard of," says Ajay.
`Selvi,' the next step
CONFIDENT TO THE CORE: Ajay
Ajay is a consummate villain in `Selvi,' a Radaan TV production. "Director Sundar K. Vijayan told me at the outset that I would dub for the soap myself and I'm enjoying it. In make-up, approach and delineation I'm working hard to differentiate between the `Kolangal' and `Selvi' roles," says Ajay. Yet why is he so keen on playing negative roles? "Simple ... there are many shades to an anti-hero role and I find them interesting," is the reply.
But when the actor is so keen to make it in films, would not over-exposure on the small screen hamper his chances? "I don't take up more than two serials at a time. Eventually God decides what to give you and when," the actor touches a philosophical plane.
Gaurav Kapoor or Ajay was a big hit in the Hindi version of the Tamil "Chiththi," where he played Riyaz Khan's role. `Choti Ma — Ek Anokha Bandhan' on Zee enjoyed sustained viewership. "Any UTV project I'm counted in," laughs Ajay. His Telugu TV appearances include `Rajugari Koothurulu.'
Movie roles
Actually Ajay's debut appearance was in Priyadarshan's `Gardish,' where as a 16-year old, he played Jackie Shroff's brother. "In `Hungama' I played Paresh Rawal's son and when Dharan Mandrayar gave me `Shweth ... ' I was thrilled."
Another niche film that Ajay worked in was `Nakshatra Kadhal,' a poignant story on AIDS awareness. He has done a couple of tele-films too. But he cannot forget the role of a subtle villain that he did in `Ooty,' his first Tamil film, which had Murali as hero. "Director Anwar cast me in a solid role in my very first film. It's sad it didn't do well," he reflects. Ajay is also a busy dubbing artiste for Hindi films. "Recently I gave my voice for Madhavan for the Hindi version of `Anbae Sivam,' " he informs. Recently Ajay got married to model and TV actress Nisha.
Funnily he plays her brother in `Kolangal'! "It's only a role after all," he laughs.
" One reason for TV stars not being considered for films could be that their dates are totally blocked for television serials, where they work through the year on a 9 to 9 shift. I've already made a round of production offices. So I keep at least 10 days in a month free and I'm waiting. A couple of projects in Hindi are in the offing. Probably soon a big director will notice me on the small screen and offer me a good character role ... " Ajay flashes a confident smile. Meanwhile the enthusiastic actor will continue to hone his skills on the small screen.
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