Exclusive! Actor Chaams Completed 20 Years & His Son Yohan Is Making His Debut In Hotstar Web Series Fall

Actor Chaams is a well-established comedy actor in Tamil Film Industry. He played a lot of comedy characters with Vaigaipuyal Vadivelu in his early stages. He does performance oriented comedies with perfect timing and brilliant sense of humor. He is basically from Trichy and his Tamil pronunciation is too good. A lot of his characters made a remarkable place in the hearts of Tamil audience. King, Sachien, Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam, Karuppusamy Kuththagaithaarar, Arai Enn 305-il Kadavul and Payanam are some films to be mentioned for his brilliant performance. The great actor has an experience of more than 20 years in the field of acting which includes theatre plays, TV serials and movies. Amidst his busy shooting schedule, he gave an exclusive interview to FilmiBeat. Let's get into the interview to know more about the astonishing performer!

Can you please tell us about your upcoming projects ?

Aayiram Jenmangal with my favorite director Ezhil. GV Prakash Kumar played the lead role in it and I played a prominent role in different getups in the film. Project C Chapter II is another important film, where I played a role with a negative shade. Complete comedy role in Sundara Travels - Part 2. The team is telling that my comedy portions really came out well in the film. Local Sarakku with Yogi Babu. He played the lead comedian and I joined him for two important comedy tracks in it. Dance Master Dinesh played the lead role in the film. It is directed by SP Rajkumar, who directed Sura with Thalapathy Vijay. I just went into the project for only one scene but they just loved my performance and added another important track for me. The producer of the film Suwaminathan Rajesh is so happy with the output. All these above mentioned projects are completed already and gearing up for the release.

Haraa with ester year Actor Mohan Sir. He is coming back after a long time and I'm happy to be a part of the project. My dear brother Actor Sathish is doing the lead role in a film and I'm playing an important character in it. A film with Kandhakottai director Sakthivel. Aaganya, Raakathan, Rainbow, Kadaisi Kadhal Kadhai, Magarandha Kolaigal, Mudakkaruthaan, Peyala Gandam, Kumbaari and an untitled film based on cycle are also in process. Apart from these, more than 22 films are there in discussion stage. Almost 95 per cent directors approach me only for comedy roles. But I'm also focusing on character roles as well. So that I can develop my opportunities to explore more in acting. Since I'm a producer-friendly and director-friendly actor, they always recommend me in a lot to other projects as well.

What are your favorite characters in your filmography ?

Though I made my debut in Kadhal Mannan with Ajith Kumar, King remains special to me since it is my first film with descent screen presence and dialogues. Director Prabhu Solomon likes Crazy Mohan a lot. He gave me the opportunity to perform along with Vaigai Puyal Vadivelu and Vikram in the film just because of my experience in theatre with Crazy Mohan. I did it in the year 2002 and people still appreciate my performance in the film. Aaru is my next favorite film because of the lengthy dialogue sequence given to me in the film. Then Sachien gave me a good recognition with Vaigai Puyal Vadivelu again. I just love my translator role in Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam and my role as a Jewellery shop owner's son in Karuppusamy Kuththagaithaarar gave me a fantastic reach all over Tamilnadu. Especially I got a great recognition for that particular character in southern districts of Tamilnadu.
Above all, Java Sundarresan character in Arai Enn 305-il Kadavul got me a terrific response from the audience. Till now majority of people know me as Java Sundarresan and not as Chaams. My original name is Swaminathan. Crazy Mohan gave me the pet name as Chaamaa and later it became Chaams. I tried a lot to register my name as Chaams but this Java Sundarresan easily got registered among people. Then I cannot forget my roles in Saravanan Irukka Bayam Yen, Manam Kothi Paravai, Desingu Raja and Kathavarayan. Though my screen presence were very less with Super Star RajiniKanth in Endhiran and Ulaganayagan Kamal Haasan in Thoongavanam, the memories will be cherished forever. Almost all my characters with Vaigai Puyal Vadivelu still stands tall. And my recent film Diary got me a great visibility again. Now I'm doing a film with director Chimbu Devan. I believe that my role in this film will make it beyond my characters in his previous films Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam and Arai Enn 305-il Kadavul. I will take this moment to thank all my directors who gave me the wonderful opportunities to play all these characters in their films.

Did you write the Comedy tracks in your films ?

Mostly directors will do it with their own writing team. But I will also give my inputs if the director allows it. I have worked with all types of filmmakers. Some of them just expected me to perform only with the lines given in the script. Whereas in the other hand, few directors gave me complete freedom, where I worked on the areas of improvement. So it depends on the director's mindset and basically the design of the comedy portion is theirs. The translator character in Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam is one good example for improvisation in my films. Initially director Chimbu Devan designed it as a translator who literally translates the content. But he accepted my improvisation when I did it with the exact body language of the great actor MS Baskar and it elevated the comedy element to another level. I also did a little improvisation even in my other successful comedy films like Karuppusamy Kuththagaithaarar and Payanam.

An important fact here is an actor cannot immediately take the freedom for granted. It will take a lot time for him to settle in the industry as a well-known actor. Only his experience will give him the clarity on where to express and where to limit his inputs to a director. A comedy actor should have inborn humor sense along with good acting skills. My travel with Crazy Mohan gave me the much needed learning and I'm always grateful to him.

Do you have the interest to do emotional and supporting characters in future ?

Earlier my target was only to become a great comedy actor in the industry. I was not ready to try character roles then. But now I'm planning to explore it as well after doing the lead role in Operation JuJuPi. People always says that a Psycho Villain role will suit me well. And I will definitely go for it in future, if I get a good character role in any important film.

Who is your favorite comedy actor and why ?

Generally, I love to watch all good comedy scenes. Nagesh is my most favorite in the list. Jim Carry, Mr. Bean, Charlie Chaplin, Vennira Aadai Moorthy, Vadivelu and Goundamani are some of my favorite comedy actors. In today's era, I like Yogi Babu, Santhanam and Soori. Even I like highly talented TV stars like Ramar and Vadivel Balaji.

Did you felt that you have an impact of any other actors in your performance ?

Since most of the people says that I look like the legendary actor Chandrababu, I will be conscious in avoiding an impact of any other actor in me. I will experiment a lot with expressions to entertain the audience like Jim Carry, Mr. Bean and Charlie Chaplin. And I always keep my performance as 70 per cent and my dialogues as 30 per cent in my acting. Uniqueness is very important for an actor.
A realized the impact of my favorite comedy actors while performing. Nagesh lifting the shoulder, Vadivelu and Goundamani's styles of starring at fellow comedians are some examples.

What is your advice for next generation comedy actors ?

Even for an actor who try to become a hero in film industry, there are certain basic aspects like a pleasing personality, good dancing and fighting skills. Dance and fight can be taught to anyone and they can develop the skilk with regular practice. But for someone who try to become a comedy actor, they should have some inborn sense of humor. Above which he should also have a proper practice. A good actor will give the space for other fellow actors to perform in the sets. He should be aware of the lighting, eye contact and the positioning as well. He will be used to all these nuances only with regular practice.

Then he should have the fire within him to achieve his place in the industry. Since it is an unorganized field, he should have the much needed patience to go with its flow. And finally, he should create a strong backup to manage his financial needs without disturbing his process to try hard in cinema. These basics will help you to reach your goal as a successful comedy actor when you get a really good opportunity.

Do you have plans to write and direct your own scripts ?

Not at all. Writing needs a lot of time and it is a never ending process. Developing my portions in a well-written script on the spot is completely different and I have a great experience in it. But writing a script from the scratch is not that easy and I won't take it. Though I love writing a good comedy track completely on my own, I always felt it too tough when compared to acting. Because the entire responsibility falls on the writer's head here. I have the confidence in writing but I don't have a great interest to achieve as a writer.

Please tell us about the struggles you faced to become a popular actor.

Initially during 1995, I was working in a private company in Trichy. My company got shifted to Chennai due to which I got an amazing space to get into stage dramas. Then I became a permanent actor in Crazy Mohan theatre plays. He gave me some important character roles in his TV serials as well. Till then it was manageable for me to balance my work in the company and in acting field. I was married and I'm the only bread winner for my typical middle class family. Slowly I realized the less probability in getting opportunities in cinema. During that time, my wife tried hard and got a teacher job with a descent salary in hand. I discussed with her and she allowed me to quit my job in 2001. She was taking care of the family expenses and I started trying to get into cinema on a serious note.

Even then I was doing stage dramas, serials and movies in parallel. During that period, I faced a lot of rejections in cinema since I was acting in serials as well. Though I was earning a regular income from TV serials, I stopped it one a fine day and concentrated more on cinema. At a later stage when I got more important roles, I left dramas as well due to the date clash with movie shoots. It was possible for me just because of the confidence and support given to me by my wife.

In other way, I can tell that this slow process of playing safely in terms of financial situations delayed the start of my movie career. I'm happy with what I'm today in the film industry but I still have a small regret for not starting early. My son Yohan is now gearing up to become an actor and I'm supporting him in all possible means. I gave him the confidence and he quit his studies during 10th standard. Then he completed his acting course in Koothu-P-Pattarai and his direction course in BOFTA since he had the interest in learning all the crafts of cinema. Later he assisted Ace director Ram for 2 years and now he is trying hard to become a full-time lead actor. He already acted in an important role in an upcoming webseries Fall produced by Hotstar. Anjali did the lead role in it. Even to my son, I advised to fix a timeline and work on it since cinema is a risky field. I'm ready to support him forever but I wanted to let him know the difficulties in it and make his own decision to become successful in his profession. There should be a Plan-B always and I strongly believe in it. Because I have seen a lot of successful artists in cinema who lost their personal life for the passion.