SJ Suryah recalls missed chance to direct Rajinikanth

SJ Suryah came close to directing Rajinikanth around 2002, a possibility that never became a film. Looking back on it in a Suryan FM interview about Jailer 2, he described the missed opportunity as a small regret. He now shares the screen with Rajinikanth in Nelson’s sequel.

Suryah said acting had always been his reason for entering cinema. Direction became his route into the industry when acting opportunities did not arrive. “It is a small regret for me,” he said of the missed Rajinikanth collaboration. His career subsequently moved towards the acting path he had wanted all along.

The interview also offered a more intimate picture of their work together now. Suryah recalled being nervous before his first shot with Rajinikanth, only for the senior actor to welcome him with the ease of an old college friend. Once the camera rolled, Suryah said, professional focus had to take over.

His most revealing anecdote was about rehearsal. Rajinikanth sat beside him, demonstrated an acting choice and asked what he thought. Encouraged by Suryah’s response, he went over to Nelson to try it out, with an enthusiasm Suryah compared to a child’s even after 50 years in cinema.

Nelson preferred to retain the existing approach and leave out the additional bit. Rajinikanth returned to his seat beside Suryah with a joke: “I told you he wouldn’t listen.”

Nelson’s insistence on getting a performance just right also surfaced in cinematographer Rajiv Menon’s account of shooting the Rajinikanth-Kamal Haasan promo. Suryah described the Jailer 2 director as meticulous in his planning, with actors adapting to the particular performance he wanted.

For Suryah, asking for another take comes down to what a shot preserves. The moment in front of the camera will not return, he said, but the recording will remain long after the person performing it is gone.