Suriya on His Dark Turn as Rolex

Actor Suriya’s cameo as Rolex in Vikram (2022) has certainly earned its spot in cinematic history. His bloody portrayal of a drug lord at the climax of the film is what Lokesh Kanagaraj used “to end Vikram on a high”, said the director in an interview with The Indian Express.

In conversation with Anupama Chopra, Editor of The Hollywood Reporter India, Suriya shared an unexpected perspective on his craft, simply smiling and saying, “There’s no secret ingredient.”

“I go by [what] my directors [say],” he explained, citing his roles in Aaytha Ezhuthu (2004), Saala Khadoos or Irudhi Suttru (2016) and Soorarai Pottru (2020). When Suriya played Rolex, however, he   didn’t get his scenes till the morning of the shoot.

“You didn’t know you’re cutting that man’s arm off?” asked Chopra, incredulously.

“I knew, but with Kamal [Hassan] sir and Vijay Sethupathi being in the film, so many things were happening,” he added, “I was in the last two minutes of the film, it was a half day’s shoot and there was no prep. They were lighting it up, the cameras were there and dialogues were just given to you… It was all candid and spontaneous.”

The actor also touched upon his now-famous cigarette smoking scene. “For [the last] 20 years, I’ve never smoked onscreen. I thought I should never do that,” he said. But since he was playing the bad guy in this film, Suriya decided to break his personal  rule for once. “Just before the shoot I said, ‘Give me a cigarette’. It came, and then we started shooting.”

Despite such little screen time, Suriya’s presence in Vikram is undeniable. It made Chopra wonder what he had to dig into in order to truly embody a character as villainous as Rolex.

“Usually, I depend on my old memories… I draw emotions from my past experiences,” he said. “But the mood [here] was set by Lokesh.” The actor explained that the dialogues contained all the emotion he needed. “Somewhere, somehow he was able to say certain things that I tried to own up to… to see how true I could be. I didn’t think beyond that.” He certainly didn't expect a discussion about a standalone Rolex film because all he wanted when he said yes to the role was to share the screen with Kamal Hassan.

The spinoff, Rolex, is expected to hit theatres in 2025.