I Never Wanted To Become An Actor: Sivakumar

Yesteryear actor and Suriya's father Sivakumar has said, he never wanted to become an actor and that was not his ambition.

In an interview to Times of India, the actor, who is considered as legendary by many, has said painting is his primary passion and that he is a better painter than an actor.

Sivakumar was into arts and painting, right from his school days.

"When my classmates were writing the alphabets, I would be drawing shapes out of those letters - cow, goat, train, tree and so on. I could draw things after observing them just once. I used to draw the spinal cord correctly when I was in sixth standard.

I wanted to get into engineering after SSLC, but I was advised by my seniors that if I wanted to be the best student in my field, I should be taking up painting," the 74-year-old has said.

Though college for fine arts was a rarity at his time, the one, which he studied in was already 150 years old, according to the actor.

"Interestingly, the arts college was already 150 years old then. But those who knew about it referred to it as 'bommai college'," he told the leading daily.

But, he learnt about the hardship involved in arts when he was in Coimbatore.

"In Coimbatore, I used to look in awe at a 60-foot hand-drawn cut-out of Sivaji put up in front of Royal Theatre. I used to think that if a man could draw such a huge painting, he must be among the world's greatest artists.

But all those notions were shattered. Painting a 60-ft cut-out would take at least a week, and the shoulders would hurt like anything. But for all that effort, he (the painter) would be getting only 150. I realised the art was great, but it did not command any respect. I did not want to toil all my life, so, I joined the College of Fine Arts the next year," he has said.

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