It would be quite interesting to do a film with Rajnikant: Kamal Haasan

Kamal Haasan is back to entertaining fans with his upcoming movie Vishwaroop. An icon in himself, the splendid actor has always been compared with other stalwart from down South Rajnikant. So in a candid chat with Tellychakkar, we asked Kamal Haasan to talk about his relationship with Rajnikant. Read on… How many films have you actually done with Rajnikant? About 10, most of them were hits, though we did have failures. We’ve done three films for our mutual mentor K. Balachander. What’s more, I’ve done guest roles in Rajni’s films. I’d do anything he asks me to, no question of refusing him. Do the two of you have mutually exclusive fan clubs? The war between the two fan clubs stopped only about 15 years ago. We both told them to stop after there were stray incidents of violence on both sides. Considering fans have killed each other for our distinguished predecessors MGR and Shivaji Ganesan, our fans would be considered pacifists (laughs). I went ahead and set a new precedent. I turned my fan club into a social service organization. There’s a marked element of Shivaji Ganesan in your performance as there’s MGR in Rajnikant? In fact we both incorporate elements of both the towering personalities. I’ve done what you’d call MGR kind of films. Shivaji Saab felt squeamish about doing out-and-out masala films. Rajni too has changed his image to play the Shivaji kind of roles. In one film he played a character that ages from 6 to 60. That way we’ve crisscrossed paths on screen. What do you think about Rajnikant as an actor? When we were still in our 20s I asked him why he has to be so stylized on screen. He told me that’s the secret of his future success. I assured him my style would also be a winner. He turned around to say, ‘Fair enough. You do your thing and I’ll do my own.’ Rajni is a phenomenon too. You mean, phenomenon no. 2? (laughs) No seriously, both of us were young actors who started from scratch. He was the bus conductor with acting aspirations. I was the clapper boy who got the clap in my very film (Kamal Haasan played a character with venereal disease in his first adult role). We didn’t have fathers to make movies for us. But we had the same godfather K. Balachander. It’s quite strange, but our paths as actors were always intertwined. Initially we were both typecast as villains. I got fed up of doing those and went away to Kerala to do Malayalam films. Then his career as a villain took off, and I returned to Chennai to pursue a career in Tamil cinema. We made our way up together. At the Thenali function Rajni pointed out that though he’s four years my senior I’m his senior professionally and that he would take my advice about doing a film with me, if there’s occasion for us to star together. Are you keen on doing a film with Rajnikant? It depends. He said if we do a film together he won’t direct it. It has to be either me or someone else. It would be quite interesting to do a film with him. At the Thenali silver jubilee function Rajni recalled an incident early in our careers when he was riding pillion on a mo’bike with me. When I sort of took a skid Rajni asked if I knew how to ride a mo’bike. I assured him even if I fell I wouldn’t let him fall. I was so touched when at the Thenali function Rajni said, ‘That’s what happened in our career. He never let me fall. In 1983 when I wanted to leave everything behind it was Kamal who cajoled me back to the material world.’ I guess we’ll do a film together. We’ve been talking about it for five years. We’re worried about the expectations.