Magizh Thirumeni interview: ‘Vidaamuyarchi’ has the Ajith Kumar we all wish to see on screen

With ‘Vidaamuyarchi’ set to release on February 6, director Magizh Thirumeni shares what Ajith Kumar said ahead of his Dubai 24H race, what prompted the superstar to do such an unconventional film, and the saturation point the action film genre has reached in India

When filmmaker Magizh Thirumeni sits with us for another chat, this time on video, he seems eager to address all that has been weighing him down over the last few weeks. A lot has happened since he last spoke to us, which was just a few hours before it was announced that Vidaamuyarchi, his long-awaited action-thriller starring Ajith Kumar, had to postpone its plans to release during Pongal. A collective fandom poured its heart out on social media; remember, they have been waiting for a long time to catch their superstar under Magizh’s direction, and they were expecting a trailer, not a postponement notice.

“I felt quite dejected. Everyone, including Lyca Productions, was upset and it took us a day or two to get out of it. However, we all understood the reasons behind it, and the producers did make a concerted, sincere effort to ensure this wasn’t the case,” says Magizh. Furthermore, a lot of what the filmmaker had said in our interview about preparing the audiences for what awaits them — like, how it was the star who provided the source material, and why it isn’t unlike anything both of them had done in their careers — were misconstrued, as, say, Magizh justifying an inferior product that is in the making. This, as Magizh says in a shocking revelation, is not an isolated incident, but a series of attempts from a certain group that has targeted him right from the project’s inception.

Any other filmmaker working on any other project might have buckled under such pressure. Thankfully, Magizh had a pillar of support in Ajith Kumar. Listen to him recite what the star had to say about the postponement, and it’s nothing short of a blockbuster fan service: “Magizh don’t feel bad. So what if our film doesn’t release on a festival day? The day of our film’s release will become a festive day,” Ajith told him, as quoted by the director. “He was not only aware of the negativity we were subject to, but he was also amongst a few individuals who stood by me throughout,” says Magizh, adding that the star has assured him of more collaborations in the future.

Excerpts:

Absolutely. It has also gotten a lot of goodwill for him. So, Ajith sir had informed us about returning to racing months ago. We were all prepared for it. A few weeks before he left for the race, when we were wrapping up our film, he told me, ‘Magizh, when I go to participate in this race, anything can happen, which is why I want to wrap up all my film commitments, because there are so many people who have placed their trust in me, two producers have invested money trusting me, and so many people have put in their hard work for these films. When I get back to the racing circuit and I step on the accelerator, I have to press it 100%; If I apply only 90% pressure, I wouldn’t be doing justice to the race. Just because I have two uncompleted films, I can’t play it safe. I don’t want to do that, because anything can happen.’ I get goosebumps thinking about it even now. When he gets into something, he dedicates himself to it wholeheartedly.

I am not at a place where I can talk about it, not because I want to conceal things, but due to certain facts that the production house has asked me not to talk about it. They have good and fair reasons for asking that. What I can say is that Vidaamuyarchi is almost a two-and-a-half-hour film; I believe that says a lot about it. There’s a lot of original material in this story.

One thing I can promise you is this — we will see the Ajith Kumar we all wish to see on screen in Vidaamuyarchi. Handsome, charming and suave. After a long time, he has a proper romantic track in a film. I can promise an engaging, engrossing two-and-a-half hours.