Sivakarthikeyan plays an unusual character with a rugged look: AR Murugadoss

Director AR Murugadoss is currently busy editing his film with Sivakarthikeyan, in Mumbai. The film, so far referred to as SKxARM, has been titled Madharasi. Explaining why he chose this title, the director says, “The story opens from the point of view of characters in North India. Madharasi is a term that many North Indians use to refer to a South Indian. While the usage of this term has reduced these days, since the film is about how people in the north view us, I felt it would be apt as a title.”

He says that this will be “an out-and-out action film with a beautiful love story wrapped inside it”.

“Sivakarthikeyan is already doing action films and this will definitely take him to the next level. He will have a rugged look in the film as his character is that of someone who doesn’t care much about himself or his appearance,” he shares.

Many of Murugadoss’s films have one unique element, like memory loss (Ghajini), and sleeper cells (Thuppakki). The director admits that this one, too, will have a unique element. “In this one, the unique element is with respect to Sivakarthikeyan’s character. However, I feel it’s too early to reveal what it is now. All I can say is that his character will be unusual,” he teases.

The director is reuniting with Vidyut Jamwal, who he introduced in Tamil with Thuppakki. He says, “Vidyut had said no to acting as the villain even in films starring big heroes in the north. But when I reached out to him, even over the phone, he assured me he’d do this villain role for me. And when we met for the discussion, the first thing he told me was that he’d do the film no matter how the script was. And after he heard it, he loved it and hugged me.” Actors Biju Menon and Shabeer Kallarakkal, too, will be seen as strong characters that will be central to the plot, he adds.

The film’s ‘glimpse’ was released yesterday, and Murugadoss says that composer Anirudh came up with two music pieces for it. “While we have used one in the glimpse, the other one, which had the title as the tune, sounded superb. Unfortunately, since the glimpse has fast cuts, it didn’t fit right, so we will be using it in the film. The songs have also been recorded barring one background song; even for that one, we’ve locked the tune already,” he shares.

The filmmaker informs that the shoot is almost over, with “only 12 days of the climax fight left to be canned” and signs off by saying, “It will be a commercial film that will satisfy Sivakarthikeyan’s fans and also get critical acclaim.”

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