'I can kick Johnny Depp's butt'

He loves women ��������� no two ways about it. But he happens to have a soft spot for men as well. Say vanakkam to Parattai Prince, the conniving, cold-blooded and ambiguously-oriented villain of Va ��������� Quarter Cutting (VQC), as embodied by John Vijay.
The actor, who was last seen reprising a meaty role as Son of Gun in Pushkar-Gayathri���������s Oram Po, and more recently in Mani Ratnam���������s Raavanan and Bale Pandiya is now savouring his turn as a supposedly bisexual bad guy in VQC.
The actor begins, ���������After Oram Po, I started getting several offers, where I was asked to reprise the well-received, Thoothukudi (Tuticorin) accent as part of my role. But then, I���������ve always had this desire to play a character in the ���������twilight zone of sexuality���������, so to speak. Stalwarts like Kamal Haasan and Prakash Raj have done so in the past and I too wanted to try out something fresh for myself. So, when the director duo comprising Pushkar and Gayathri (who happen to be my friends from college) approached me for this part, I just grabbed it without batting an eye. Needless to say, I had an absolute blast getting into my character, a ruthless chameleon of sorts, who terrorises anyone and everyone who stands in his way.���������
So was it all fun and games on the sets for John, who also heads an ad agency in real life, who reunited with his old-time, campus buddies on this film? ���������Well, partly yes and partly no. You see, we guys go back a long time, so the camaraderie is intact. However, if you mess up a shot, and believe me, I did mess up quite a few of them, the directors won���������t let you off the hook on grounds of long-standing friendship. They go all-out ballistic, generously lacing their discontent with the choicest expletives and ripping me to shreds before happily moving on to the next scene where we transform into a happy family (again)!���������
In fact, shooting for this film harkens John���������s memories back to the time when he shot for Raavanan with Mani Ratnam. Reminisces the actor, ���������As anybody who knows Mani would vouch for, the director is nothing short of a drill instructor at boot camp. You walk in with so many preconceived notions and Mani just chips away at you like a sculptor chisels a rock. In less than a week���������s time, he moulds you into a lump of clay that can be modelled as per the requirements of his script. Thanks to Mani���������s training, I can kick Johnny Depp���������s butt if he were to act alongside me now!���������
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