Vikram, the Man......

The trend of actors who are also stars winning national awards marks the disappearance of the clear division between the so-called art cinema and commercial cinema. A decade ago, national awards mostly went to artists who acted in `art' or `parallel' cinema. In the changed situation, popular artists and stars are national award winners often. In Malayalam cinema, popular stars such as Mammotty, Mohanlal and Suresh Gopi have bagged national awards.

In Tamil cinema the only two stars who received national awards were Kamal Hassan and MGR (M.G. Ramachandran). Surprisingly, the late Sivaji Ganesan never got it.

The winner of this year's national award is Vikram for his role as a gravedigger in the Tamil film Pithamagan. His winning the honour is unique in many ways. Prior to this, he won the Filmfare award for the same role. For more than a decade, he has been an actor in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. His debut as a protagonist was way back in 1989 in the Tamil film, Meera directed by P.C. Sriram. He continued to do running characters in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. Many of his co-actors became big actors and stars. He did not lose heart because he did not want to phase out. He was determined to stay and prove himself one day. During that tough decade he went for dancing classes every day, he tried acting out different scenes, different characters with his small group of friends.

Four years ago, director Bala offered him the role of "Chiyaan" in the film Sethu. It was also Bala's debut film. Vikram shaved his head, thinned down to half his size, grew nails for the role. He did not accept any other offers during this period in order to maintain the continuity of his looks. His hope was that the project would be over in three months. But the film took two full years for completion. That was the worst phase of his career. He was weak economically, and his fire was in danger of dying down. For a moment, he even thought of giving up everything. But a few days after Sethu was released, life changed for Vikram. The film caught on. People mobbed him wherever he went. He was Chiyaan, for them. Many, including Vikram, expected the national award for this role in Sethu. But Vikram lost it by a single vote.

It is again director Bala who offered him the "Chittan" role in Pithamagan. Chittan is an uncivilised gravedigger who does not utter a single word in the entire film. Vikram coloured his hair, discoloured his teeth and did a lot of homework for the character. This time he did not miss the award.

In between Sethu and Pithamagan he acted in nine Tamil films many of which became super hits. Dhill, Gemini, Dhool and Saamy made him a super star in the Tamil film industry. Now he is acting in Anniyan - a mega budget film by Shankar. Vikram's principle and practice is to do only one film at a time.