Ever since actor-director Samuthirakani told R. K. Suresh at a gymnasium, a few years ago, that he had the face of an actor, the latter has been in a quest to become one. So seriously did Suresh take his advice that he wasted no time in taking lessons in everything from acting to horse-riding to fight routines. One of his acting exercises, one that he assures me is followed at many reputed acting schools, including Koothu-P-Pattarai, is the curious practice of mimicking the gestures of animals. He spends many a day observing, for instance, cats. “It has a certain cunning look sometimes. I stand in front of the mirror and try to make the faces it does.” He does the same with hens too. “Their body language is so fast—the way they turn their neck around, for instance…” This particular aspect came in quite handy for him during the shooting of Bala’s Tharai Thappattai . “There was a scene in which I had to turn my head around abruptly. I couldn’t have done it as well, if I hadn’t done these exercises.”
Tharai Thappattai , however, didn’t come easily. Before he became a successful distributor ( Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom , Soodhu Kavvum , IdharkuthaneAasaipattai Balakumara ), he had painstakingly walked up and down the steps of all the major studios in the city, in search of an acting opportunity. It was then that he realised to his horror that acting aspirants were expected to pay for their roles. “Even for a cameo, I was asked to pay money.” After many exhausting months, Suresh landed the role of a “backup criminal” in Pudhupettai , and accepted the advance payment. His father, an ex-producer who had made a Murali-starrer called Poo Vaasam (“even I don’t remember much of that film”), was furious that Suresh had agreed to play such a minor role and made him return the advance. “He assured me that something good will come along, that he’d be happy to produce if necessary.”
Then came his purple patch as a distributor, and consequently, friendships with important people in the industry, including Bala. Six months after Paradesi ’s release (which Suresh distributed), Bala invited him to a restaurant. “For half an hour, he stared at me. He didn’t utter a single word.” Suresh, understandably, was getting fidgety. Just as he decided to break the silence, Bala spoke. “He asked me to come back with a beard in six months.” If it were any other director, Suresh would have secretly rejoiced; surely this was for an important role? But with Bala, “even senior actors can’t be too sure if they will be cast. He doesn’t make compromises, not even for the biggest stars.”
When Suresh returned with a beard, Bala told him that he’d play a character called Karuppiah. Unfortunately, not unlike the protagonists in Bala films, Suresh seemed ill-fated. During the pre-shoot, he broke his leg, trying to impress Bala during a fight scene. And again, not unlike Bala’s protagonists, he soldiered on, after tying up his leg with some wood he found nearby. “There was no way I was going to tell him about the injury and ruin my chance.” Eventually, unlike in Bala’s films, hope arrived. “Sasi annan (he pronounces it, annay , like his character does in Tharai Thappattai ) needed to grow a beard, and so, we were all forced to take a break of four months.”
Incidentally, Suresh wasn’t the only guy to keep secrets. Bala, for his part, kept it really close to his chest that Suresh was playing the villain. “That’s why I reacted like a victim when Sasi annay beats me up in an early scene. I really thought I was playing an innocent man.” Eventually, Bala told him about his role, and asked him to smoke a cigarette and blow smoke out of his nostrils. The problem? Suresh had never smoked until then. But if a broken leg wasn’t stopping him, a distaste for cigarettes was definitely not going to. “I practised by smoking for a few weeks, and when it was time for the shot, I blew smoke out of my nostrils effortlessly.” In contemporary parlance, like.. a… boss.
All of this seems to have now paid off richly for him. At a recent screening in Ambika Theatre, Red Hills, families approached him for selfies. “And I thought they’d hate me.” The biggest compliment, however, came from the director himself, during the shooting. “I’d just shot a scene with the chettiar and was looking around to see if Bala annay was happy with it.” That’s when Suresh received a thumping slap on his back. It was Bala. “He was very happy with the shot.”
Suresh doesn’t need to climb the stairs of studios anymore. He has already been cast in Marudhu alongside Vishal. “I play a politician. It’s a great role.” And one that he landed even before Tharai Thappattai released. “When you’re doing a Bala film, word gets out.” Suresh still has trouble believing that he has acted as a villain in a Bala film. So smitten with Bala’s films is Suresh that he claims to have watched Sethu “at least 100 times”. “You seemed surprised when I told you about the cat-and-hen acting exercises. You should hear this.” And then he tells me that when he fell in love with the woman who is now his wife, he would take her to a godown-like setting and act out Vikram’s scene in Sethu . “ Nee laam Rani madhiri irukka vendiyava ,” he’d quote Vikram from that scene. It may seem excessive for you and me, but Suresh sums it all in just two words: he’s a “Bala veriyan ”.
