Here are two more interviews of Kamal, done as part of Dasavathaaram publicity. Sample some excerpts before enjoying the whole interviews at DNA and BusinessOfCinema.com.

I have spent 500 hours doing make up itself and it takes a lot of perseverance and belief in what you are doing to keep doing it. If I spent that much time inside a cockpit I would be a successful commercial pilot.

“I can alter my life, you can’t! You can criticise it, comment on it, but you can’t change it. That is a great advantage to have.”

“…There is a downside to everything. If we take ourselves too seriously, we actors will definitely need a psychiatrist.”

“…I make sure that I get my privacy. I demand it and sometimes I steal it. It is sometimes taken for granted, but I maintain that my privacy is nobody’s business.”

“…Spirituality makes you rest, makes you content. I will only settle down when I am in a coffin, under the earth or inside the fire. Till then I will keep myself active and alive…”

“…I think every actor has a responsibility. One cannot say I am an actor, I will do my job and not care about what’s happening in the country.”

From the perspective of international standards, money and talent is being invested in the right direction and I feel that in two years from now nothing called Bollywood will exist.

[With input from Ananth]

Sify.com published a write-up on Dasavathaaram, which seemed to have been written by Kamal himself. It talks about make-up, screenplay, music, etc. Excerpts:

We started with just 25 days for the first schedule of the film, which had no shooting, no acting. It was just for the make-up tests. 25 days in the US. 20 days, 12 hours a day, and then 5 days of taking photographs. When we came back with the photographs, people believed more in Dasavatharam, including the producer, the director and myself. Till date nobody outside of the unit has seen any of these photographs.

Synthetic bio-weapons, research and analysis wing, Kulothunga II’s distaste for Vedanta and the Chaos theory!

Yes. Said in one sentence the above sounds pedantic and pompous. But embedded into a screenplay it makes for a racy read.

…about the chaos theory and how we are all connected as a world. None of your acts or mine will go without an effect.

It’s like as if one act, collides with another. It’s almost like particle physics if you look at it. One object crashing onto another producing something else which could tell the story of how all things came to be.

I think, basically I am a cinema fan. And I have given you what I would like to see as a sensible cinema fan. So, I think your intelligence will not be insulted, your time will not be wasted, and you will really enjoy this film. And why you should watch the film, because we worked so hard for you, that’s one good reason why.

KS Ravikumar reveals some details in an interview to The New Indian Express.

The movie is complete but for the frames of the tsunami, which are being done in Hong Kong. “But the music that was out a week ago is doing very good. My pick is Ulaga Naayagane”, Ravikumar reveals.

“But for Kamal Haasan, the hardest role, I think, would be the role of Fletcher that he plays in the movie. Shooting the grandmother role and the tall man’s role was most challenging for me”, he adds.

“If I do movies as big as this, I can only do four Dasavathaarams for the rest of my life”, he jokingly states. And not all producers would be open to doing big budget movies as this”, he reasons.

Here’s a short interview of Kamal in The Times of India. Highlights:

I used to spend five hours only in makeup. What was interesting is that I have started respecting women more after that.

I know Dasavatharam is going to be a hit. I can’t say how big. I know I sound pompous by saying that, but we have got a U certificate for the film, which will be enjoyed by all age groups.

I feel film promotion has become extremely important and I don’t think it’s new. That has always been the trend. The loudest seller in a bazaar attracts attention. I have always felt that the loudest crying child gets the milk.

Let’s look at another article in The Times of India. It mentions that Kamal has won 175 awards till date! Here’s a quote:

The actor, who is a fan of Marlon Brando and Peter Sellers, says the strength of his performances lies in his ability to do his job “very honestly”. “I’m a true Gandhian in that respect; I believe that if you are honest to whatever you do, name, fame and accolades will automatically find you,” he says seriously.

Ravivarman, the cinematographer, too had things to say to The Hindu.

“List 10 of the best action films of Hollywood, and ‘Dasavathaaram’ would easily match them in quality,” says Ravivarman.

“I don’t think I can work on such a mammoth project again. I could go into depression or have my pressure levels touch dangerous levels,” laughs Ravivarman.

There was this car chase which included a helicopter, with Kamal Haasan at the helm of the sequence. It was shot at night in Florida. “Ideally, the entire city ought to have been lighted up for it. But as it couldn’t be done, I went ahead with the available lighting. It was all dark when I looked through the lens. But experience told me we would get the required effect. They were anxious moments, because if the effort had gone awry re-shooting the portion would have been impossible,” recalls Ravi.

Another piece of news that has been doing the rounds is the names of the 10 characters. Here is the list from IndiaGlitz, Galatta.com and Adhikaalai.com.

IndiaGlitz also came up with a ‘preview’.

[With inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Dasavatharam got opened up further today, with a new still and Kamal’s interview in The Hindu. Here are some highlights:

“Dasavatharam has a lot of Al Gore in it, and also Ramanujar,” he says.

“For one, there are 10 characters, ranging in scope from a Ramanujar and a Galileo to a particle physicist. Computer graphics bring to life many of the scenes.”

“Amitabh Bachchan will also be here,” adds Kamal. “Chan is well known to the producer. So he decided to invite him. It will be a grand event,” he says with a smile.

“I enjoy telling stories so it was a wonderful experience. And it’s been a great team, together with an understanding producer (Oscar Ravichandran) and a competent director (K.S. Ravikumar) at the helm. It’s not as though there were no egos but the project sailed smoothly thanks to frank and creative exchanges,” Kamal adds.

“It’s rare for a composer from the north to create tunes that allow the lyricist here to lend words with equal ease. Himesh has pulled that off. You will find in Himesh’s song, the joy of an M.S.Viswanathan tune. Those in the unit were initially sceptical but they fell for his music,” says Kamal.

No conversation with Kamal is complete without a reference to his mentor Ananthu. “He would always say, ‘keep it simple.’ I’ve followed that,” says the veteran. The humour and fun of ‘Michael Madana Kamarajan,’ the sadness of ‘Mahanadhi,’ the sentimentality of ‘Thevar Magan’ and the emotions of ‘Hey!Ram!’ are all woven into a screenplay that is irreverent enough to defy pundit-driven formulas. Yet, ‘Dasavatharam’ will remain faithful to time-tested storytelling techniques, he says.

[With inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Kamal seems to have a done a whole set of interviews in Mumbai, as part of promotion for Dasavatharam. None of the interviews mention Dashaavtar though. Here are two more of them, one each for Hindustan Times and Times of India. The North Indian press seems to be obsessed with his personal life more than anything else, but Kamal is unfazed. Here are some highlights from the enjoyable interviews. As usual, Kamal proves to be a “quote factory”!

Both the times when you separated from your wives, there was another woman involved. Sarika led to your split with Vani and Simran caused a rift between Sarika and you.
Unless it’s a gay marriage, there’s always another woman involved.

All I can say is that marriage is a folly that is slowly becoming redundant. I have four vaccination marks. In our time, they were a necessary ordeal. It’s different today. I’m hopeful that one day like the vaccinations, the institution of marriage too will go away.

A broken marriage isn’t an offence or crime. Today I am happy, yes, but my idea of being settled is only inside the coffin. Till then everything is mobile.

Planning a comeback to Hindi films?
Oh definitely. There’s plenty of money. But I’m a sucker for applause. I want to reach out to a bigger market.

So where do you think you went wrong?
I didn’t try hard enough. To succeed here, I needed to live in Mumbai, make films consistently, not have a release every four-five years. Still, the audience was kind, they didn’t forget me.

But I make occasional appearances here when I want to reach out to larger audience. It’s a different story in Tamil Nadu. There a film sells on my name alone.

Ten roles, isn’t he increasingly becoming self-indulgent in his films? “Who isn’t,” asked Kamal defensively. “Aren’t great actors like Yusuf saab and Amitabh self-indulgent? Who else should I love more than me? Brad Pitt?”

My politics is private like sex. I don’t want to spoil the fun by talking about it.

There have been several conjectures about my 10 get-ups complete with graphics. I could use them for some other movie.

I liked Om Shanti Om and might have liked it even more had I been less informed about cinema and wasn’t looking into unnecessary details like focus and colour. I’m like a cook who cannot savour a good dish without checking on the salt and sugar.

We believe in two different kinds of cinema. It’s unfair to pit one against the other. Would you ask Marlon Brando what he thought about John Wayne’s films? Or compare (Arnold) Schwarzenegger’s biceps to Woody Allen’s brains? Come on! Mr Rajnikant has made some good films. I’ve done some commercially successful films too.

…Unless Rajnikanth and I agree to work for free and later take the trade collection, I don’t see it happening. But, yes, it will be interesting to work together.

It’s being said that your next film will be with Walt Disney studio.
We’re in talks.

Apparently, Mallika Sherawat threw a lot of tantrums.
I wouldn’t know. I was the writer and star of the film. ( Smiles ) Everyone treated me well.

With the release of this new still and the audio release pretty much confirmed for April 25, the Dasavatharam blitzkrieg seems to have begun. We have a new interview with KS Ravikumar in the Madras Plus section of Economic Times:

• He attributes the delay to the need for compressing huge amount of material to around 3 hours, including about two and half hours with computer graphics.
• He says that he has never before worked so hard on a movie.
• He clarifies that politicians have not really ‘acted’ in the movie, but that clippings featuring them have been used.
• He confirms that there are no duet songs between Asin and Kamal.

Various reports in MSN, Thatstamil, Galatta.com, Behindwoods and IndiaGlitz talk about the grand audio release function featuring a set resembling the Oscar awards ceremony. Surpassing all earlier estimates, it is also said that the number of prints that will get released may touch 1500!

The storm is arriving shortly at the coast.

[With inputs from Ananth]

We have been waiting for long to hear stuff from the horse’s mouth and here it comes! Kamal answers several questions lingering in our minds presently, through an interview to Mumbai Mirror. Highlights:

Jackie Chan is coming down for the music release of the film?
The producer Oscar is an old friend of Jackie and it is because of him that Jackie is coming down.

It took a long time to conceive?
The basic thing was that all of us, especially the director and I, had to decide to concentrate on just this film and we were ready to face the lack of averages. We both could have done four films each in these two years instead of Dasavatharam, but I must say that it was quite rewarding. The producer is already assured of making twice the money he has spent in Tamil Nadu itself and that’s quite an achievement.

It is said to be the costliest film in Tamil Nadu.
Yes it is the costliest film in the Tamil film industry. It has already managed to break even. I just hope that now it lives up to the expectation of audiences. It is a costly film as its stars, music director and the director are being paid a lot. The best part is that the producer was smiling at the start of the film and he still is smiling when it’s complete - which is very rare.

You were not very confident of Himesh earlier.
It’s not that I looked down upon him but yes, I wouldn’t have agreed to him doing the music at an earlier point. But he gave us what we wanted and that too in a very short time. I have no complaints now, whatsoever.

You have signed Hema Malini for your next film. Tell us more about the film.
Yes, I have signed her for the film. All I can say right now is that it’s a period film set in the 7th century. It will be a bi-lingual in Hindi and Tamil and I am writing the entire script in Tamil and Atul Tiwari is writing it in Hindi. Rahman will score the music.

There is always this talk about a war between you and Rajnikant over who is supreme in the South industry.
(Laughs) We decided to wage this war when we were very young. We always meet and take each other’s opinion about each other’s work. We give advice to each other too - though we don’t necessarily follow it. I always tell him what I am going to do next. So does he. We work like a team.

But does it pressurise you when his film and your film are up for release together - as in the case of Sivaji and Dasavatharam this time?
I guess the media plays it up. I think I play cricket and he plays football. It is not even the same field. We may be in the same arena but we play two different games.

But Mani Ratnam had a project for you two.
It was not for both of us acting together, but for one producing and one acting. Rajnikant and I act together? If Rajnikant and I act together what will be left to make the film with?

Enjoy the whole inteview!

That Kamal enjoys widespread admiration among peers in his industry is a known fact. Let’s take a peek into the range of people who have been floored by him.

Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi had this to say:

When I saw Kamal Haasan’s performance in Swatimuthyam (directed by K. Vishwanath), I was so moved that the next day I felt ridiculous to utter the same old routine dialogues for one of my commercial blockbusters…

Going up North, we encounter another big star, Govinda:

Kamal Hassan and Amitabh Bachchan are the kings.

Ashutosh Rana, who displayed his acting prowess in Sangharsh and Dushman, mentions Kamal in an interview:

I really have a high regard for Dilip Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Hassan.

Continuing with the North, even a new singer like Zubeen isn’t spared by the charm.

I love Kamal Haasan, Naseeruddin Shah and Marlon Brando. But Charlie Chaplin is my favourite.

His reach extends quite far.

New York actor Tirlok Malik, who played a suspected serial killer in a cameo with Haasan, said, It was such an honor to act with one of the greatest actors of India. Malik found, while observing Kamal Haasan acting in the movie over many days in New York, that Mr. Haasan makes acting seem so natural. Because any actor would be in awe of Mr. Haasan’s talent and body of work, Malik asked the star what makes a good actor. Mr. Haasan replied, modestly: Script, script, script.

Back to Tamil movies, director-turned-actor Cheran had to counter accusations of aping Kamal recently. Defending himself, he also heaped praise on Kamal’s achievements.

Shweta, who entralled us in Kutty as a child, declares herself a fan.

I am a complete Kamal Haasan fan. I adore all his movies. I really like Anbe Sivam, Virumaandi, basically all his movies.

Rising star Bharath joins the bandwagon.

He says, “It is no doubt a difficult thing to get ready with the make-up for the role. However, I keep myself enthusiastic thinking about Kamal Haasan, who takes several pains to don different make-ups”.

He also says that he had seen Kamal Haasan’s Enakul Oruvan more than several times to study the body language and mannerisms of a Nepali.

“No doubt, I am inspired by Kamal Haasan. He is my role model”, he adds.

Ravivarman, who worked with Kamal in Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu and Dasavatharam had an interesting anecdote.

Listening to Ravi hum the tune, composer Thaman suggested Ravi sing it himself. “The song and Vairamuthu’s lyrics for it fascinated me. So I went ahead. I made my mentor Kamal Haasan listen to it, without telling him that it was in my voice. But he guessed it, praised me and suggested a few corrections in my diction. I rehearsed thoroughly and went back and recorded the piece again,” he says.

Let’s end with Karan, once again, whose relationship with Kamal is well-known.

From that scene till the end, Kamal taught me how to go about acting. Any misgivings vanished with the way he greeted me warmly every morning, as he stepped out of the car, a Contessa in those days.

[With inputs from HAL]

The recent issue of Ananda Vikatan has an interview with KS Ravikumar on Dasavatharam. This also includes some new photos from the shooting spots. While you can see it online or in paper form, here are some highlights.

• The Sikh character is named Avtar Singh. The pair is played by Jayapradha.
• Mallika features in the first half of the movie.
• Ravikumar had recommended Asin for the heroine’s role and Kamal was wary of her capabilities initially.
• The late Sujatha and Crazy Mohan were involved in the story discussion.
• He claims that the magnificence of Dasavatharam will be different from Sivaji (the movie starring Rajnikanth) and the style of Shankar the director.

Kamal was interviewed for Puththagam Pesudhu (Tamil magazine on books), in its special edition released for the Chennai book exhibition held in January. Bubbling with enthusiasm and ideas, Kamal covers a wide range of topics related to books, movies, religion and society. In the end, the reader is astounded with his depth of knowledge and wisdom. Though we are unable to reproduce this very long interview or provide a link to it, here are some highlights.

• He encourages the efforts of the people behind this magazine.
• He talks about an aborted attempt with writer Balakumaran to provide meaningful stories as comic strips. He puts forward an idea of narrating stories through FM radio!
• He talks about his early inhibition to write in Tamil and how RC Sakthi helped him overcome it. He first wrote a short story titled “Ninaivugal” (Memories).
• Talking of the influences of books in his movies, he mentions Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. He says that Saket of Hey Ram was influenced by the character of Raskolnikov.
• He openly talks about his fascination for women and obsession with sex-related books during his adoloscent years. He also speaks about how he evolved into an atheist.
• He goes onto talk about his literary heroes incluing Jayakanthan, Jeyamohan and Sundararamasami. Regarding movies, he mentions his “Close net film society” efforts and is confident of changing the nature of movies in India.
• He praises fellow actor Sivakumar for not having a fans’ association. He also elaborately evaluates Sivaji Ganesan’s acting.
• During the interview, Kamal quotes a censored dialogue from Mumbai Xpress, which is based on Gandhi’s three monkeys!

Translation of some snippets:

• Since profound literature was boring, readers stuck to trivial magazines. As we forgot to mix it with honey, only honey bottles are being provided nowadays.
• Is the side-dish alone enough? Don’t we need to eat the main dish? People imagine that the side-dish alone would fill stomachs. That’s sad.
• There is this book called Tao of Physics. I like such ones…I promise I didn’t understand it.
• In my house too, there were people who read books. But in Brahmin households, English had the first priority. Only women used to talk about Tamil novels. Due to the interest of my mother and sister, I too got introduced to Tamil.
• I’m a pedestrian politician. I’m not searching for my leader in Delhi, but on the streets.
• When Ananthu died, two boxes full of books came to my house. I leaned on the box and cried out loud. That is my relationship with books.
• Great writers do contain themselves due to their desire to feature in Ananda Vikatan and Kumudham (top Tamil magazines). Sivaji did the same.
• Shouldn’t Sivaji and Satyajit Ray have worked together? Language is a reason. We don’t have a national language.
• Rajni came (without knowing Tamil), isn’t it? No one puts in efforts like his these days.
• The air-conditioner in my office runs because movies have become a business.

Let’s end with some seemingly outrageous statements on one of his pet topics, atheism:

• It is difficult to make me believe in God after all these years.
• If the religious heads didn’t keep dancing this way, a person like me wouldn’t have come to atheism.
• Ramanuja was an atheist too. Christ was an atheist too. In their times.

If you can get hold of the issue, enjoy another of Kamal’s dimensions.

[Via an unassuming source who wishes to remain anonymous]

Though not a full-blown interview, Kamal shares some thoughts presently in his mind to Times of India. The newspaper tries to sensationalize the piece by referring to his personal life and beliefs. Nevertheless, we’ll see what Kamal has to say, including doing a movie with Shruti.

“Marmayogi will be shot in Hindi as well,” Kamal says. “But I’m doing things at my own pace. I’m one of the few filmmakers in Chennai who takes every Sunday off.”

What would really excite him is a project with Shruti. “Of course, it would be interesting to work with my daughter. But it has to be an apt script. A great father-daughter story would be a perfect casting for us,” he says, hoping somebody will come up with such a script.

“…I am deeply hurt by what is happening around in the name of religion. I personally feel, whenever there is a crisis, God becomes a mere witness. I am happy with my decision,” he explains.

Read the whole piece.