Varun on Gautham Menon’s ‘Joshua: Imai Pol Kaakha’, how it belongs to the ‘Dhruva Natchathiram’ universe and more

Varun speaks about how he prepared for the role in ‘Joshua,’ his biggest takeaway from working with Gautham Menon, and how he handled the uncertainity that loomed over the release of the film

“Go with the flow. Don’t plan too much or have any expectations.” This principle is something you hear actor Varun mention quite a few times as he speaks about his journey with Joshua: Imai Pol Kaakha, directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon, which is releasing five years after it began production.

Picture this: you are a young actor waiting for a big break and you see your stars align when a master filmmaker who works predominantly with top-tier heroes decides to make a John Wick-esque action film in Tamil with you in the lead. You take it up as a challenge, rise to the occasion, and give it your all physically and mentally, only for it to lie in the can for years. Varun went through shock, dejection, realisation, acknowledgement, and finally, moving on while holding onto hope.

”Joshua taught me that you cannot plan certain things, especially when it comes to cinema; you have to be in a neutral state. This is why even now, days before the release, I am conditioning my mind to just go with the flow and to not have any expectations about the result of the movie; because setting up a lot of expectations can disappoint you as well,” says Varun.

Excerpts from a conversation:

We started shooting for Joshua when Gautham sir was committed to doing Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu. Enai Nokki Paayum Thota was in post-production and sir was working on Dhruva Natchathiram as well. So we could plan a proper schedule only based on his availability. We would finish shooting for a schedule, he would go on to focus on his other duties, and once again we would have to wait for his calendar to free up; this became a cycle. In fact, when a few schedules got delayed, I did feel a bit anxious about when we would start shooting again.

And in 2020, just as we were about to go to the US to shoot a long, pivotal schedule, the pandemic-induced lockdown spoiled our plans. We had no control over it, and so we had to stall the production for a couple of years. After that, Gautham sir had to do Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu. Then came a delay in the post-production of Joshua. The CGI technicians took five to six months for their work but we were not satisfied with the output because it didn’t match the international standards with which we had shot the movie. So we had to give them more time to redo a lot of that. Gautham sir wanted Dhruva Natchathiram to release first but since it didn’t happen for whatever reasons, we decided to release Joshua.

This was quite a difficult journey because what else could you do when you cannot be certain of something? I decided not to think about it, and told myself that things would eventually fall into place. What I realised in this journey is that time, luck and hard work should all fall in place for something to happen. I’m quite positive it has happened and that the film will be received well.