Roshan Basheer, who is basking in the glory of the success of his Telugu and Tamil films, is busy slimming down and learning the local Chennai dialect for his next movie. The actor, who is best known to the Malayalam audience as the arrogant and villainous college boy in Drishyam, will now be coming to the big screen as a hardcore Ilaiyathalapathy Vijay fan.
“My next film is a story about three hardcore Vijay fans and I play one of the lead characters, along with two new faces. I have been asked to slim down considerably for the film. The characters belong to the local Chennai region and, unlike the dialect used by those within the city, local Chennaiites speak a different dialect. I’m now trying to learn the style by watching old films, mostly Vijay films. I’m a huge fan of Vijay myself,” chimes Roshan.
The first schedule of the movie was in Palakkad and the second schedule will begin in Chennai on November 9. The film, directed by Shebi Chavakkad, is being produced by Anto Joseph.
His latest release in Tamil, Kubera Rashi, in which he made his debut as the lead, has fetched him good reviews.
“Though the release of my Tamil film was delayed for a year, I’m told that this will be a breakthrough in my career. I’m really happy. Until now, all the films I have done have cast me as characters with negative shades. So it was a different experience, playing a positive character,” he says.
With his Telugu film Colombus also doing well, the actor is very excited. “I had taken a lot of effort for the film. Tamil, being more or less like Malayalam, was easy to pick up. Telugu, on the other hand, was very difficult. I was given the script along with a translation to learn my dialogues. But I couldn’t say the dialogues with a convincing accent despite my best efforts. I even considered backing out of the project at one point. But ultimately, the director and producer were fully supportive. They sent someone to read me the script aloud and even postponed the schedule so that I get more time to learn the language,” he says.
