Muthukumar on Dorothy and the role he wanted all along

Signed on to play the brother, the Sarpatta Parambarai actor held out for the patriarch's whistle instead, and told Karthik Subbaraj it would be his best film.

Vettai Muthukumar was not supposed to play Whistle Veerayya. He was first brought into Dorothy for the brother’s role, he says, while the part he actually wanted belonged to the patriarch whose whistle runs the household. “I deeply desired to play the Whistle Veerayya role. Finally, I felt blessed to get that role.”

He got it, and it has become the performance people are talking about. Our Dorothy review singled out how he makes a whistle sound like an instruction everyone has learnt to obey. Muthukumar puts that kind of reception down to something particular about Tamil audiences. “One of the beautiful things about Tamil cinema audiences is the unconditional love they extend to actors, irrespective of whether they play protagonists, antagonists or grey-shaded characters.”

Vettai Muthukumar seated barefoot on a mud floor in a white veshti

Vettai Muthukumar walking past a bull in a village courtyard, a towel over his shoulder

His confidence in the film started on set. “While shooting for Dorothy, I told Karthik Subbaraj that it is going to be the best among all his 10 movies,” he says. Dorothy is the director’s tenth feature, and after the thanksgiving evening where Mysskin said he must now bow to Karthik Subbaraj, Muthukumar is not alone in that view. He thanked the producers and the director for handing him a role he calls challenging, and saved a specific word for the makeup artists from Mumbai who built the character’s look on his face.

The response, he says, cuts two ways. “This response has filled me with renewed energy, but it has also given me a greater sense of responsibility to carry this forward and deliver more promising performances that satisfy audiences.”

Vettai Muthukumar ladling food in a kitchen doorway as two boys wait

Vettai Muthukumar standing in a lime shirt and checked lungi against a weathered wall

Muthukumar trained in theatre with Koothu-P-Pattarai before cinema found him. Thaniga in Sarpatta Parambarai brought him wider recognition, and Petta, Jagame Thandhiram and Mahaan added range. This year alone he has played Rendu Idly in Thaai Kizhavi and now Veerayya.

Next up is Sarpatta 2, which takes him back to the boxing world that made his name, and Seyon with Sivakarthikeyan, with several other projects in various stages of production.

Muthukumar on Dorothy: he wanted Whistle Veerayya all along