‘All my villains are likeable villains’: Arjun Das on Con City and life after the bad guy

A few days after the Con City trailer landed, Arjun Das sat down with the press again, this time properly. At the trailer launch the microphones kept getting bumped and the crowd kept pressing in, and he felt he had not been able to say what he wanted. So this was a do-over, and a thank-you. “Right from Kaithi, all of you have been extremely supportive,” he said. “After every film, many of you have taken me aside privately to share what worked and what didn’t. My parents always ask me what the reviews are saying, and I’ve always told them you have been guiding me on the kind of films I should do.”

The film, out June 26, casts him as Saravanan, an Electricity Board worker buried in debt who stumbles into a windfall. It is his first solo lead, his first time playing a father, and a hard turn into family comedy for an actor the audience has mostly known as a villain. Over an hour, he talked about all of it: the ensemble he assumed was a wish list, the Good Bad Ugly effect that flooded his inbox with comedy scripts, and why he insists every bad guy he has played was, underneath, a likeable one.

Let’s start with the obvious one. What is Con City actually about, and what do you think people will connect with?

It has characters everyone can relate to. Saravanan, my character, works in the EB office and he is in debt. He is a boy next door. He could be your relative, someone in your own family. It is relatable people in a real-life situation, and then something extraordinary happens to them. For the first time I am playing a father in this film, and I loved that, because I really love kids. There is a beautiful story with emotions and a lot of fun in it. For two hours and twenty minutes you can sit with your family, enjoy it, and walk out happy.

There has been a lot of speculation that it is a money-scam story in the vein of Lucky Bhaskar.

No. Harish must have warned me a hundred times not to reveal anything, so I have to be careful. But it is not a film like Lucky Bhaskar. This is different. Like I said, it is about ordinary people in an extraordinary situation, and the story moves from there.

Is it a morality tale about greed, then?

That is part of it, yes. But it is less about greed and more about a situation these people get pushed into. What happens next is the actual story, and there is a lot more to it than that. I don’t want to give it away. It should be fresh for you when you watch it.

The trailer leans into comedy, but every poster is dead serious, and you almost look like a villain in them. Why the mismatch?

During the photoshoot we were all laughing and joking, actually. Harish was very particular and specifically told everyone not to smile. He kept the posters that way on purpose. But after the trailer, you understand what kind of film it really is.

You are surrounded by an enormous senior ensemble here. What was that like to act inside of?

I learned so much. It was not challenging, it was an education. Vadivukkarasi Amma, Yogi Babu sir, VTV Ganesh sir, Thambi Ramaiah sir, Ponvannan sir, Ramesh Thilak, Anna Ben, and even Akilan, the boy who plays my son. Before every shot you can watch how they respond to a scene on impulse, how they improvise, the discipline of it. Honestly, when Harish first told me the cast, I thought it was just a wish list. I had no idea whether all of them would actually be in the film. And then on set he genuinely brought every one of them together. That made me very happy.

There was a story going around that Harish kept calling “cut, cut” on set, and that there were arguments with the editor.

Was that Vadivukkarasi Amma? She might have said that playfully. No, Harish was very clear-headed. When he first narrated the story to me he already had everything mapped, from the first look to the posters, the teaser, the trailer, the shots. On set he shot exactly what he needed and nothing more. He would tell us precisely how a line should land, how a character should speak, what counter to give. He made the film with a very clear-cut vision. And Vadivukkarasi Amma is mind-blowing in it. After you finish appreciating everyone’s performances, if you have a little love left over, watch the film for me too.

Con City also has a heavy prosthetics sequence. How was that?

A big thank you to Abdul sir for that. Sitting four and a half hours to get the prosthetics applied is the hard part, sitting silently while it goes on, and the removal takes time too. All four of us had to do those scenes in prosthetics. You can’t shoot normal scenes once it is on, so whichever day you are in prosthetics, you have to finish only those shots, and you can’t keep it on too long or it starts chipping and has to be retouched. We have all seen those videos of Rajini sir and Kamal sir transforming, and the first time I went through it I realised it is genuinely not an easy task. Hats off to them.

Here is the trailer, for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet.

For a long time you were the face of the celebrated villain in Tamil cinema. How do you feel about villains being cherished the way heroes are now?

I am very happy about it. But if you look at the negative characters in my journey, they are all likeable villains. Take Kaithi, he does everything for his brother, to save his brother. Take OG, there may be a grey shade at first, but it is about avenging his father. With Good Bad Ugly, I told Adhik on day one, “I am not a villain in this, it is childhood trauma that makes me do what I do.” In Master, that shade keeps shifting too, because of a small boy, because of VJS. So they are all likeable villains, and I think that is why audiences take to them. If a negative role I really love comes along, I will absolutely do it. But right now there is nothing like that in my lineup. They started talking about OG 2 yesterday, and I genuinely don’t know yet whether I am in it or not.

Do you think a villain needs a backstory or trauma to work, or can they simply be bad?

There has to be an arc written for the villain, in our cinema especially, otherwise it is just a punch in the climax and it is finished. When it is written well, the audience relates much more. Look at the trauma shown in Good Bad Ugly, and the reason he is chasing Ajith sir, there is a reason for it. That is all credit to the directors and how they write these characters, whether it is Anbu in Kaithi or Das in Master or Johnny and Jammy in Adhik’s film. But they don’t always have to be grey. A villain can be completely dark too, if that is how it fits the story. I am just not sure audiences enjoy a villain who is bad purely for the sake of it.

Favourite movie villains?

Heath Ledger, in Joker. Anything means Heath Ledger. In Tamil, Arvind Swamy sir was superb in Thani Oruvan. He did it brilliantly.

Let’s talk about Good Bad Ugly, which clearly shifted something. How did the perception of you change after it?

A lot of comedy roles started coming to me, because people really liked Johnny and Jammy. But the full credit goes to Adhik and Ajith sir. I hadn’t said this before the release, but I used to work in Suresh Chandra sir’s office, Ajith sir’s manager. Right from Veeram, Ajith sir had been recommending my name for films. It never quite materialised, until finally he suggested me to Adhik for Good Bad Ugly, and it fell into place perfectly. A lot of kids loved Jammy. After that, and after dubbing for Mufasa, little children would come up to me on set saying they loved the character. So now comedy scripts and different genres keep coming.

Was the comedy in Good Bad Ugly difficult? It is a very different register from this.

Yes. That was an over-the-top performance, a different genre altogether. Con City is more subtle. But it was a lot of fun, because when you work with so many senior actors their humour rubs off on you. Vadivukkarasi Amma on one side, Yogi Babu sir on the other, VTV sir there too. I think a bit of their timing passed on to me.

When you arrived, the standard line was that your voice was your USP. Has anyone ever told you it is a drawback in emotional scenes?

I personally have never felt that. This is just my voice. For an emotional scene I modulate it as much as I can with the director’s help. Only once, after Master, did one person mention a slight lack of clarity, and because of that I am very conscious about it now. In the dubbing studio I actively work with the engineer and the director to make sure every line is clear. There are two or three emotional scenes in Con City. Watch them and tell me.

Is the voice even natural, or did you have some operation?

I just switched it on when I walked in. I’ll switch it off when I leave.

You get called across the industry. Which languages are you fluent in, and where else are you working?

Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, English. And honestly, the offers come in every language. They have called me in Hindi, I have done two Telugu films, Malayalam keeps calling, Kannada has asked though I haven’t done it yet.

And the voice work. After Mufasa, is there another childhood character you would love to voice?

I don’t have a list, but I would absolutely do it, why not. These are films we have all watched since we were kids, so it is a huge honour. Mahesh Babu sir and SRK sir voiced Mufasa in their languages, so just being called for the Tamil version felt like a blessing. If a Hollywood film calls me to do a voice, I will definitely do it.

There was a stretch where your releases seemed to slow down. People read it as a gap. Was it?

I didn’t take a gap, honestly. Kaithi released first, and even my sister says that is when people started recognising me. But right after, Covid had us sitting at home for two years. Then came Master, then Andhaghaaram on Netflix, then Vasanthabalan sir gave me Aneethi, then Rasavathi with Santhakumar sir, Por with Bejoy Nambiar, Vishal Venkat’s film, OG, Good Bad Ugly. So the films were there, it just takes time for them to release and be promoted. There won’t be a gap after this. The lineup is solid and I believe it will be back-to-back releases.

What is in that lineup?

A film with Ranjit Jeyakodi sir, which is too soon to talk about, and one with another debut director. Two or three films in all. Mostly family-oriented subjects. When I did theatre visits for the earlier films, a lot of senior ladies and family audiences told me directly, “Do lighthearted films, we don’t want all the blood and slashing, give us something we can enjoy as a family.” The films in my lineup now are for them.

You rarely get a full romantic track. Will we finally see you in a jolly commercial role with proper chemistry?

You’re saying there was romance only in Good Bad Ugly? Adhik wrote it that way, what could I do. There are romantic scenes in Con City too. And my next film Once More is an out-and-out romance, the Ranjit sir film has romance as well. You seem to be the only one asking me about romance and engagements.

Speaking of which, the marriage rumours have been relentless for two months.

I genuinely don’t know where it came from. Engaged, getting married, my own relatives started asking me. They ran that news twice in a single month. There is no engagement and no marriage, and nothing is happening in the near future. If it ever does, I will announce it to all of you at an event exactly like this one. For now I only have films.

Today is also Vijay sir’s birthday. You were the only one from the cast who didn’t go to meet him in person.

I didn’t want to disturb him, he is very busy. But I messaged him, and I put out a tweet exactly at midnight. So I did wish him.

Ajith sir hasn’t acted in about a year and a half. As a fan, and as someone who worked in his office, how do you read that?

Everyone is waiting for his film, myself included. But let him finish his commitments. He is genuinely passionate about both racing and acting, I have seen it in person, and I am sure he will be back at the right time.

If Ajith sir and Adhik do a film together, will you be in it?

If Adhik calls me, definitely. Whether it is Adhik, Sujeeth or Lokesh, the equation is simple. If they call, I do it.

Last one. A lot of actors are entering politics. Would you, if the chance came?

No. I am quietly in my corner doing my films. Only cinema for me. Please watch the preview show, watch Con City, and tell me what you think.

Con City releases in theatres on June 26, with Netflix holding the digital rights.