Vinay Forrt is loved for his earnest depictions of his characters. He is not particular about how central the role is, only how well he plays it. God Say, his latest that released on Saturday without much fanfare, probably will be noted for both these aspects, significance and execution. He describes it humbly as a ‘regular release’. “Since it was all of a sudden, there was no time for any kind of planning,” he says. Speaking about how they were able to release the movie amidst the crisis between producers and exhibitors, he says, “There are many reasons. First, the producers of this movie are not members of the association. Secondly, these producers were ready to pay the share demanded by the distributors. Also, this movie does not have a star value or a star director. This was a reason cited by many to stall this movie when we were trying to release through our own efforts. The movie was completed a year ago and we have been trying to release ever since, but people were not ready to even give it a try. The last movie I had done was Kismat, which was commercially very successful though it did not have any ‘star cast’ in it. So what we understood is that ‘star value’ is not necessarily a criterion here. We took the initiative to release God Say and in place of 15-20 theatres that we were getting initially, we got nearly 70 theatres now.”
Speaking more about his character, Vinay says that this is one of the best characters he has ever played. “The movie unfolds in the late 90’s. I play the role of Harishchandran. When a prominent programme presenter in AIR who used to speak about Gandhi’s ideologies in a programme named Gandhi Margam retires, the station head decides to give that programme to my character and gifts him the famous book My Experiments with Truth. How this changes his life and how society reacts to his changes is what this satire named God Say talks about.’ My character is highly creative but an alcoholic, who drinks liquor first thing in the morning, in empty stomach.”
Elaborating on why it is important that people watch this movie, he says, “Only when people watch this movie will the efforts we put in be recognised. Almost always, characters in popular movies are the ones that are celebrated, because those are the ones people watch. Even my character in Kismat was not that appreciated. But when it came to the character in Premam, even though it was a small one it was appreciated. It was noticed because the movie was such a massive hit. The difference is that the full credit of the character in Premam goes to the director and my co-actor Soubin and when it comes to the one in Kismat, all the planning and homework was put in by the actor; the details, the body language, a detailed study went into it. Same goes for God Say’s character Harishchandran, which turned out to be a deadly emotional journey. This director took me through paths I’ve never travelled in my life before. The reason I like this character so much is that Harishchandran has nothing in common with me as a person. He is well read, has a voice fit for radio. The emotional journey he goes through is something that I have never come across. I am not a Gandhi fan either. I hope I have tried to do full justice to this character.”
Was he scared to enact a character so unlike him? “Never, I am fully confident as an actor and as a human being I have a heart willing to work on anything that has been thrown at me.” About the directors of God Say, Sherrey Govindan and Shyju Govind, he says, “I believe these directors are two of the most brilliant that I have worked with. During the shoot, we had no luxuries that a commercial movie’s actors and technicians get to enjoy. No budget, no proper location or camera equipment. It depended solely on the directors’ brilliance, a few actors like us and a crew that stood by the director. This movie was shot with a lot of limitations.” Vinay admits that he is a director’s actor. “I believe cinema is absolutely a director’s medium. Every good character that I have done so far has had a very strong writer and a strong director behind it.”
