Thursday Aug 09 2007, Chennai

Sunder C. says good-bye to direction

Sunder C., who has established his name as a minimum guarantee director has now decided to bid adieu to direction.The director turned actor has acted as hero in two films (‘Thalainagaram’ and ‘Veerappu’) that turned out to be hits.Now he has decided to say good-bye to direction and to concentrate on acting alone.

Excerpts from the brief chat with the new hero:

Why you have decided to give up directing?

Yah! I suffered a lot as a director.Despite directing hit film, I had to chase the heroes to convince them to act in my film.Getting OK from them is not enough.We have to tell the story to his wife, children, uncle, and aunt and get OK from all of them.It was a torturous experience.I even narrated the story to a hero who heard the story just to time pass.

Besides this horrible experience, we have to abide by the hero’s conditions regarding heroine choice.Apart from these troubles, a director has to look after the shooting schedules, deal with call sheet problems, and manage the continuity.Now I am relieved.I feel happy to be an actor.I don’t want to get into the mess again.

As a hero how do you behave?

When I was a director, I behaved as producers’ director.Now I am director’s actor.I don’t interfere in any of the aspects of the film once I give my nod to the story and sign the agreement.

What is your approach towards your heroines?

I don’t bother about the heroines.Could I expect Trisha or Asin to pair with me? I go by director’s choice.We hear that you had denied call sheet to your wife Khushbhoo.My goodness! That’s a rumor.As of now I am acting in others’ productions.That’s all.

What are the films you have in hand?

‘Aayutham Seyvom’ is ready for release.This is a film produced by Sai Meera and directed by Udayan.He was the one who directed Vijayakanth’s ‘Perarasu’.Newcomer Anjali is the heroine. comes ‘Perumal’, directed by Vinsent Selva.Namitha and Meenakshi are the heroines.

Then I have ‘Thee’ and ‘Porikki’ directed by Kichcha and Shakthi Chithambaram respectively.We have newcomer Rahini as heroine in ‘Porikki’.

Your characters happen to be a rowdy, scoundrel and lorry driver.Why is it so?

Yah! Even a couple of films I am acting now have such roles.But I play a police officer in ‘Porikki’.I’ll try to do different roles in future.You are acting in four or five films at a time.

How do you manage your call sheets?

Committing for 4-5 films at a time is a habit that I developed during my directorial days.This is a way to ensure safety.If one film flops, the others would save me.If I do one by one, the failure of a single film might affect my career.It happened to me when I directed films one by one.Though I gave four consecutive hits like ‘Mettukkkudi’ and ‘Janakiraman’, the failure of ‘Raman Abdullah’ made me jobless for six months.It was at this juncture I took the decision to commit for many films at a time.It is how I committed to act many films at a time.

But actually it has proved to be a loss for me.Though my movies become hit, I am not able to increase my salary since I committed to other films much earlier (smiles).