Interview with Assault Sethu (Bobby Simha)

Tamil film buffs across the globe have been swept by the ’Assault Sethu’ wave over the past three days. With his once-in-a-life-time performance in the recently released Jigarthanda, Bobby Simha has wowed the audiences everywhere and he is our man of the moment.

In an exclusive chat with Only Kollywood, the Soodhu Kavvum actor talks about his fervent desire to act with Rajinikanth, his toughest challenges to portray ‘Assault Sethu’ on screen, how he’s always a director’s actor and an ardent Ilaiyaraja fan.

Bobby Simha is an integral part of Tamil cinema’s new-wave film-makers such as Nalan Kumarasamy and Karthik Subbaraj. He played a casual Pagalavan in Nalan Kumarasamy’s part-Guy Ritchie, part-Tarantinoesque black comedy Soodhu Kavvum, a ruthless ‘Assault Sethu’ in Jigarthanda – whose interval card is inspired by Pulp Fiction’s font. “Every character of mine is conceived, designed and molded by my directors. I’m always a director’s actor. It was Alphonse Putharen who projected the character Vatti Raja on screen. He planned my looks, attitude and even the moustache,” opens up Simha about his drastic change in roles in his seven-film old career. He owes everything to his directors.

Nalan initially offered Simha the Inspector role – ‘Bramma’ played by Yog Jagpee – in Soodhu Kaavum. But, he didn’t want to be typecast since he played Vatti Raja in his previous film, Neram. He requested Nalan to give him the Pagalavan role, but the latter was not too convinced since Simha used to portray only grey characters in his earlier short films. But, Karthik Subbaraj vouched for him. “Karthik told Nalan that I have the potential to pull off this role. He told Nalan to conduct audition and decide in case he’s not convinced. Then, Nalan molded my character into a 25-year old aimless youth for the film,” reveals Simha. But, in real life, he’s not a Nayanthara fan but Superstar Rajinikanth. “I want to act at least in a single scene featuring Rajinikanth. That’s my lifetime dream. Ore oru shot la yaavathu nikkanum,” gushes Simha.

When Nalan Kumarasamy was apprehensive about casting Simha as Pagalavan in a comic role for Soodhu Kavvum, Karthik Subbaraj didn’t think Simha could do justice to the heavy role of Assault Sethu in Jigarthanda four years back when they were discussing the script. “I was thrilled to bits when Karthik approached me for the role last year. He asked me, ‘Panriya da?’ and yes, I was on board. My looks, age, gestures and everything in the film was designed by Karthik meticulously,” says Simha. He may be the most talked about person for the past few days on social media platforms, but he has not received any appreciation for his role from the person who means a lot to him, his father. “But, he has discussed about it with Karthik. In fact, he didn’t watch Neram at all. I took him to watch Soodhu Kavvum but he didn’t utter a word again,” smiles Simha. But his father loves Simha’s short film Black and White and that remains his only appreciation till date.

To prepare for his role, Simha observed the lives of few gangsters in Madurai. “Since Karthik was based in Madurai, it was easy for us to approach. There were no qualms about it. The guy who plays Soundar in the film is also from Madurai and knows a lot of people there who helped us,” he says. And yes, we quizzed him about the beauty of the most-discussed lengthy toilet sequence in Jigarthanda. “It was a Karthik show. He had written it that way. I asked him, ‘Naan ennada panna kadaisila?’ and he said Apde paathutu bathroom kulla poidra”, explains Simha.

Do you remember the scene where Simha jumps into the car when he is surrounded by a group of gangsters on a paddy land? He has performed it without a dupe and in a ‘single’ take. But, Simha’s most challenging scenes in Jigarthanda are the ones where we laughed our lungs out. “Gibberish part was the toughest. In fact, most of the scenes were difficult and demanding indeed,” he says. “Naan romba kashtapattu ishtapattu panna oru padam than Jigarthanda,” he sums up.

There’s a scene in Jigarthanda where Lakshmi Menon poetically expresses a scene with Ilaiyaraja song. In another scene, Simha says “Naan Shankar Ganesh fan” to Siddharth and Simha’s car carries the number ‘MSV 4444’ in the film. “Naan epome Ilaiyaraja fan,” laughs Simha when we asked him if he’s really a Shankar Ganesh fan.

The character transformation of Simha and Siddharth in the second half is one of the highlights in Jigarthanda. “I cannot over do it. I have underplayed the last few minutes with grave subtlety. If I overdo a single scene, people would paint it as melodramatic. We were highly conscious about it,” he says. But, he agrees that it’s a gamble he and Karthik took. We guess the gamble has been paid off.

What if Assault Sethu turned out to be a joke? “When Karthik narrated the entire story and finalized my character, he said ‘If Sethu loses, everyone in the film will lose. Intha padam thothuchuna en life kandippa pochu but you will survive as an actor in future’”, he says. But the unforgettable words of Karthik that still linger in Simha’s ears are ‘Unna nambaran da, avlo than.’ Since then, he decided to give everything he can to provide life to the character of Assault Sethu on screen. “I never committed to any other film while shooting Jigarthanda,” he says.

Simha plays hero in his upcoming crime-thriller Urumeen directed by Sakthivel Perumalsamy. “People will forget Assault Sethu in the film. I play a middle-aged man who come to Chennai to seek employment. I have a different makeover for the film. I hope people will like it,” he says.  He also has a brief role in horror-anthology film Aaaah directed by Hari and Hareesh.

“I’m open to take up any role if the content is good,” signs off Simha with our final question – ‘Will you be open to negative roles in future?’