Kama Of Kingstone

BY N.THYAGARAJAN
During Depak's tenure as the villain of the Selvi mega serial, he has orchestrated the murder of an innocent girl. The villain, brain washed her on the pre-text of his soft-brother who is in love with the girl. Deepak when did positive role as the brother (a temple priest) of the villain, he was subservient and humble with which he won the heart of the innocent girl who visited the temple to see him everyday. It is after the Selvi, the very same negative character continued in the Radaan TV’s next production Arasi which was telecast on the SUN TV channel in the prime-time hours (9.30 PM to 10 PM). This time the villain could not escape from our Indian Scotland yards. He was taken to jail after he had confessed that he was alone responsible for the girl’s death.

While recalling his roles as villain for soaps, there was no restriction for body languages. “We can move freely with dialogues in high decibels. Even you can jump from your seat; nobody would say anything about it. But you must prove that you are an anti-character in the soap. But, for doing hero roles, you must be very attentive and come out with dialogues as directed by the directors. Your movements are restricted as hero of the serial. You can’t turn yourself in scenes without permission of the creators”, says Deepak who was in the midst of the shootings of the mega-serial Bandham. The shooting of Bandham took on the sixth floor of the Hotel Kanchi.

Deepak started his career as model for advertisements like Fanta, Nescafe Ice Premier coffee maker. Then he was studying B.A. (Economics) in Lyola College and wanted to become a motorbike racer and did the practice in the Irungattu Kottai race course. His parents feared over the motor racing and asked him to eschew the idea.

After seeing his advertisements and ant-like movements he was given a small role in DD’s Uravugal Thodar Kadhai. Following, his recognition in the soap, he approached Raj TV to compere the Campus – Pop Bazar – Three Roses Perfect Couple Contest programme. He recalls, the programme lasted for 200 episodes. His attempts to do good roles took positive shape when he was given chance in Anbaithedi mega-serial produced by Hansa Vision and directed by V.Mohana Sundaram. He did simultaneously Anni for the Jaya TV and Agni Satchi for the Star Vijay.
Ace Director K.Balachander who was noticing Deepak’s action gave him a role to do in Inai Kodugal. He was asked to do hero role in Erakkai Kattiya Manasu for the Raj TV directed by Rajeev Prasad.
When asked about the difficulties he faced while doing the villain role and positive role simultaneously for the Radaan’s Selvi, he said, “ I learnt from the director that the ‘timing’ is most important for anyone to do dual roles. You will have to be two different persons when the camera is fixed. You will have to bring two different persons’ characters with varying modulations” says Deepak.
“ I never planned to become an actor under the two great directors like K.Balachander and P.Samuthirakani” and adds “ I took the acting in soaps very seriously after the chances started flowing”.
Very recently his role in Malargal as the hero-cum-villain had brought him laurels. He did the role of a good husband for Sri Vidya and son-in-law to Delhi Kumar. The soap was telecast in the Sun TV Channel.
He was chosen as the Best Villain Actor Award 2004 by the Variety Awards for the villain role in Manaivi. For his character role in Meendum Kaadhal Kadhai, he was awarded the best Male Supporting Award. The award was given to him by Suhasini Mani Ratnam. Though he did a good role in Getti Melam directed by Vikramadityan, he was not awarded anything, though he was expecting at that time.
His father works as the GM for the SRM Group of Hotels and his sister a Vis.com student participated in Miss World University held very recently in China and reached upto semi finals.
‘do a loving hero role, at present Deepak is doing a positive role as good son and husband role in Bandham, directed by Hari Babu.