Actors Kalidas Jayaram and Dushara Vijayan, who played a discordant duo in Pa Ranjith’s Natchathiram Nagargiradhu , have taken quite an exploratory route in recent years. Even as they have started to play crucial characters in large-scale entertainers, they seem to be operating from an identical standpoint: to do characters that can create an impact regardless of their screen time. Kalidas has been vocal about this approach since 2018’s Malayalam film Poomaram , and his characters in Tamil since 2020’s Paava Kadhaigal have reflected this as well.
“I still follow that,” he grins, adding that he’s convinced on roles making an impact, based on the gut feeling while listening to a script. “No matter how many people sit to listen to the story or how many people say their opinions on the project, it’s that feeling that works for me,” he says. Even while it seems as if Dushara is balancing relatively niche attempts like Natchathiram Nagargiradhu with big star entertainers like Dhanush’s Raayan , Rajinikanth’s Vettaiyan and Vikram’s Veera Dheera Sooran , she says she only decides between the characters that are offered to her.
“When the audiences come out of theatres, they should remember my character. And I am also ensuring that my choices are not monotonous, but versatile,” she adds. With Raayan — also starring Aparna Balamurali, SJ Suryah, Selvaraghavan and Sundeep Kishan — releasing on the 26th, Kalidas and Dushara get candid in this free-wheeling .
