Prasanna and SPB Charan on ‘Mad Company’, being in the industry for 20 years, and more

The actors speak about their characters in the web series that premieres this week, creating content for OTT and their careers that have spanned over two decades

Some of us might miss out on a relationship that others experience. Like, some might grow up without ever knowing how it feels to be pampered by grandparents. Now, imagine if you could just take out your smartphone and order for an actor to be your grandfather or grandmother. Sounds wacky? This is the concept of Aha Tamil's upcoming web series Mad Company, starring Prasanna, SPB Charan, Kaniha, and Dhanya Balakrishna among others.

Prasanna plays AK, a man who creates a corporation that lets you hire trained actors to perform a particular role. "When Vignesh Vijayakumar (director) and Balaji Mohan (producer) floated this idea, I was instantly captivated by it," says Prasanna. What drives his character AK to pursue such a peculiar business idea? "He is an actor tired of conventional methods of acting and how it is only used for cinema. So, he wants to take acting as a profession into the lives of common people," explains the actor. Interestingly, like the actors in this company, all of us perform different roles in our day-to-day lives, and Prasanna says this is another way to understand this series. "We perform a certain role as a sibling that might be quite different from the role we play as a friend, and so on," he explains.

Mad Company is Prasanna's fifth consecutive web release since his last theatrical film in 2019. While he got to play a scientist with a hidden agenda in Karthick Naren's time-travel sci-fi short in the anthology Navarasa, he played an assassin in Venkat Prabhu's short in Sony LIV's anthology Victim. "Now, that is why I am more open towards such OTT projects. It gives you the kind of opportunities that you usually do not get in films," he says adding that playing AK was also one such unique experience. "At one moment, he's really arrogant, and all of a sudden, he is as vulnerable as a child. Similarly, he will be romantic at a moment, but will bash love and romantic relationships in another instance."

It is no mere luck that Prasanna gets to do these characters. His career has been one that's shaped by conscious choices, he points out. Perhaps, this is why — through films like Cheena Thaana 001, Naanayam and Anjathe — he has always managed to break through any form of typecasting. "I have always wanted to be an actor who can earn the audience's trust that I can do anything and everything." The actor says that he looks at Dhanush's call for a role in the latter's directorial debut Power Paandi as a result of having always strived to be diverse. "I was hesitant about choosing that film but Dhanush told me that there was a reason why I should do it. He said that during the first half when my character gets angry at his father, the audience should feel the anger and that when he starts looking for his father in the second half, they should empathise with his helplessness as well. 'And only an actor like you can pull this off,' he said, and this came from an actor like Dhanush!"

Though Prasanna has been consciously avoiding films for the big screen due to the impact of the pandemic on medium-budget films, he believes that this is the right time to get back. Hence, the actor has signed a project with Rajan Madhav (who earlier collaborated with the actor in Muran) set for the big screen. The film, which will begin production next year, might introduce us to a new on-screen Prasanna. The actor has long stayed away from the type of roles that could elevate him as a star, but this might change in this film, he believes. "I never had such aspirations and I always looked at the story and the character. But I don't know if it's good or bad, because you need stardom for growth in the long run. So, though the passion for exploring newer things keeps me going, I will now also concentrate on becoming a star," says Prasanna.

While he does that, he also hopes to do something else: star in a historical. "Since my school days, I have always wanted to play a soldier in a period war drama. I have this vision of myself sitting on top of a horse, sporting battle armour and long hair, and wielding a big sharp sword. In fact, when I watched the promo of Ponniyin Selvan featuring Vikram sir, I tweeted about this and Vikram sir was gracious enough to say that my dream will come true. I hope that happens someday."

For now, Prasanna has enough releases coming up — Mad Company, two web series for Sony LIV, a Hindi web series for Viacom, and his film with Rajan.