Chiyaan Vikram from Theater to Thangalaan, His Journey, Challenges and More! | Icons Only Exclusive!

Hi, this is Chyan Vikram and I'm on IMDb for ICONS on Day. How would you describe your career to those watching from around the world? I would call it a story of a man chasing a dream. I've always wanted to be an actor from when I was in my third grade doing different roles. I've always been fascinated by doing something that's out of the box or something that's not, you know, run of the mill. I had a long struggle of about 10 years. I did Malayalam films, I did Telugu films, I did Tamil films. They're all from three different states. And I was waiting for my big break, which happened with a movie called Sedu with a director called Bala, which was a trendsetter of sorts. And that put me on the map. I was critically acclaimed. And since then, I've worked with really good directors and I've experimented with a lot of films with a lot of characters. I try to physically embody my character, which means I can put on weight. I will lose weight. I like playing with my physique that way. And at the same time, my style of acting is I like to be so immersive that every film I would like to laugh different, talk different, dance different, walk different, stand different. And I try to become a character and that excites me a lot. And I've been blessed with really great directors and story writers who have come up with some amazing scripts like Sedu, Tithamagant, I, Aparajith. It's been a very interesting journey for me. And I'm really honored that IMDb thought that I was fit enough to be on the show. And here I am. And what do you consider as your greatest achievement? When I was in college, I had gone to do a play called Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer. We started off with people booing us because the whole play would be in darkness. The whole stage was in darkness. And when the lights come on, it's like the lights go off. And then we start walking around in the darkness. So that's the play. For the first 10, 15 minutes, it would be in darkness. So we would boo. And then after the 15th minute, the half the audience started saying shh, while the other half was booing. And then they started getting involved and then they started laughing. It became such a huge hit. We were so happy. And then I met with an accident on that night and I was bedridden for three years. I had 23 surgeries. The doctor said, you'll never be able to walk again. But then I had this dream of being an actor and I had to become an actor. So the doctor said, you can't walk. But I decided to run. So I tried swimming. I tried everything. I was in crutches for a year. And I got back only because of my love for cinema and acting. And I've always believed that, you know, make your hobby your profession and you don't have to work one day in your life. And that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm not working. I'm just enjoying every minute of my life on this planet. Which role changed you the most? I would love to say it's Thangaland right now, which would be the order of the day. But I think almost all my films have changed me in some way. It's like you can never be the complete actor. You can never be that. You know, cinema changes every year. And since I've been here for so many decades, I've seen the school of acting change. Like it was very dramatic. Then it became, you know, not so dramatic. And now it's like the director is like, you don't act, just be there. I did a film called Devathir Magal, which is like a takeoff of I am Sam, where I'm differentially abled. We had a shot in the middle of nowhere. I mean, it was a bus terminus where you have lots of buses and you have lots of passengers. And they wanted a shot of me lost in that area. And they sent bodyguards with me and said, though, we will monitor the shot. I said, no, don't do that. Just keep the camera somewhere. Let me just walk through the crowd. What was very strange is I walked through a crowd. I addressed, I spoke to everybody trying to tell them, I mean, I want to go to this place. Can you help me? And not one person recognized Vikram because all they had to do was look at me and they would have known it's me. But nobody wanted to look at me. They were looking away. Like there were people who abused me. There were people who pushed me. And that that's when I realized it dawned on me. Like, I mean, think of their lives. It's it's it's so easy for us to just look the other way or so easy for us to ridicule. So easy for us to look down on people like that. Are we giving them that support that people want? Are we giving them that understanding or that love that dawned on me? I mean, when you do characters like this somewhere, you just strike a chord and there'll be that one scene or moment where it happens. It happened then. What is the story behind your nickname Chiyan? See, I had this long struggle. For me, it was Sethu was the culmination of all my dreams. It was like I want to be an actor, but I want to be an actor who's recognized. There's this film called Sarva Sundaram, where he's a waiter and he becomes a very rich person. But in his house, he'll have his uniform hanging on the wall to remind him where he came from. So I felt Chiyan was something like that because nobody knew me as Vikram, though I'd been there for so many years because they didn't know me as an actor. And once the movie came out, people started calling me Chiyan. And I kind of liked that name. And it had a different ring to it. Was there a role you wish you had played during your dubbing days? Every, every one of them. Every one of them. It was a time when I was trying to get a good break between three languages. And I decided that I needed the money to put food on the table. And that's why I did dubbing. When I couldn't walk, I decided that I'll try being a singer. If not, I'll be a photographer. I'll be a lightman. I'll be an assistant director. Anything in any capacity just to be in cinema because I love cinema so much. So when dubbing came along, I realized that here was a way of me getting a few extra bucks. It wasn't much, but I could do this. I was telling someone recently, even when people used to call me at home, every time I picked up the phone, I will never say hello. I'll change my voice and say, hello. Or I'll say, hello. Or hello. You know, like I'll constantly be playing with people because I wanted to practice and this dubbing was like that. And I worked with really good directors like Mr. Shankar and Kadir. I mean, all the films I did were like high profile films. So I was a huge integral part of the movie, though they couldn't see me. They could hear me for myself. I changed my voice in every movie. Like in Dangalaan, I'm talking as Kadeyan, which is like he says, Sengode, like his voice is very different. And it's live sound where I had to talk in that way. And the other character has a very high pitched voice. I can do different characters. All these things I learnt in dubbing. I think that everything in life in some way contributes to your learning process or the learning curve. And I thought dubbing was my most useful tool till there. See, I did a film called Sami Square, which didn't fare too well at the box office. I had to play a younger version of what I did in the first part. So I actually made myself look younger and I became leaner and fitter. Like it was a challenge for me to do that. I like doing that. Having said that, let me say Seedu. There's a particular moment when I get beaten up and I lose my memory and I go through a phase where I had to lose a lot of weight. I'm in a mental asylum. And what I go through forms the rest of the story. And even after I'm treated and I come out and I find I've lost my love, I go back to that asylum because I'd rather be there than alive. To do that sequence, I used to have just one roti or one carrot juice and one egg white through the day, nothing else. And I used to walk to the location and walk back to lose weight. So I would push myself to extremes like that. But eventually they all helped me in my characters. It is not about looking different. It's about becoming a role. And today, if I can say, OK, I did this role or I did that role and I look different, I acted different, it was because of my transformations, they all helped me. What was your most challenging day from the sets of Thangalang? No, I'm calling it the most challenging, not because of the one scene, because the whole movie was like that. There is no one scene which is like normal. Almost every sequence was shot as one single shot. The whole scene will be one shot. So there's no resting between shots. Like there are five people in a shot. You take a shot, you take a group shot, then you go for close up where the others can just sit and chill and come back. It doesn't happen. You go there in the morning and you work, work, work, work, work, work till 20, 30 takes and then lunch break to be about three o'clock. And it's hot. And then we move into the night sequences, which used to be freezing. It was out there breathing the elements. And that's how it was. And no slippers. And I'm just wearing a loincloth. We had fights. We had lots of tussles and pushes. And the whole film is a very physical film. Even romantic scenes were shoving and pushing and grabbing. And, you know, it was like that. So we were constantly getting hurt. I mean, if you see the trailer or you see the film, you'll understand how each frame was like that. And the fact is, I used to do makeup for five hours every day to look like that character. And then I go to the location and deal this plaster of mud and that'll cake on you. And you know what happens to mud when it cakes. It's itchy. And you're just pulled out of your comfort zone and you're thrown into one mess. And then you perform. So it was in every sense of the word, it was the most difficult. And I don't know if I can do another film which is as harrowing as Thangra. What does success mean to you? Success is, are you happy? Like people will say, yeah, all you need is money and you'll get anything in the world, you can be happy. But then that's not true happiness, right? Since my accident, when I knew, it's not even like I had to get well. The doctor said, you will never walk. But I wanted to act, which is why I walked. And after that, every single day that I'm working, every single role that I'm doing is like a blessing. Suppose you've seen Robert Downey Jr. He's a star. He's a superstar. But you can see him in all his films, he'll have that nonchalance. And even if he's Iron Man, he's got that, you know, selfish, effusive humor. And then he does something and he's stylish and he's got a way of doing it. But Daniel Day-Lewis would be someone I really identify with because he gets into that role and does something different. I like to be like that. But at the same time, I want to also be a Tom Cruise. I want to also be a Tom Hardy. What excites you the most about the next part of Thangalan? See, Thangalan is like many stories woven together. And like, you know, you have so many stories out there. So Ranjeet can take any bit of it. Even Arun and Aarthi's can be a story of what happens to Thangalan after he finds the gold. What is his understanding with the British? I mean, you have so many stories that are there. So you can make any number of parts. What's next for Vikram? I'm doing a film called Veeradheera Sooram. And it's by this creator called Arun Kumar, who did Chitka last year, which has been the most acclaimed film of the year. It's a very, very powerful story and narrated in a very powerful way. And we are doing this film, which is mainstream cinema. But it's going to be so raw. And we're trying to break into a new genre. We're trying to do something very commercial and very viable on a market like this. But at the same time, something that's very raw and like a slice of life. And I'm really enjoying doing it. How often do you use IMDb? And what has been your experience using it? Any time we want to watch a film, we go back and check on IMDb. Like, what do you guys say? OK, then we go read the comments. You're helping us because we do know what we want to watch and what we can ignore for some time. You guys are a very important factor in our lives. Thank you very much for it. It came up with some really good questions and piqued my curiosity and made me go deep inside and talk about me and my films. Thanglan is a film we've all put our hearts, souls, everything we possess into it. I'm so happy that I'm in a film that's made people talk. And we are in a film where people are actually sitting up and we've... There is shock and awe in this film. Please contribute to trivia, ratings and reviews on IMDb because that's what makes us tick.