It’s safe to say that Kathir (who starred in Kirumi, and was part of Vikram Vedha) was taken by surprise at how much he had to endure for his upcoming film, Sigai, for which he had to dress up as a woman. “Every time they were putting on makeup, it hurt so badly,” he says. That’s because the role demanded that he get his facial hair threaded off. “For the first few days, my facial skin was so sensitive to any touch.” The team, he says, decided against using prosthetics in the interest of realism. “The process lasted at least six hours, and it caused some amount of bleeding too,” he says. “My mother was around to provide me with support. The whole ordeal resulted in facial swelling, but the good thing was the stubble didn’t appear for at least 20 days. This really helped in the filming.”

On the very first day of the shoot, he was asked to wear a saree. His mom, again, stepped in to help him. “The whole experience was very awkward for me. I jumped when she tucked in the saree folds,” he says. It wasn’t until he put on his wig that he began feeling like the character he was playing. “Bystanders at the shoot thought I was some Bollywood heroine,” he laughs. For one scene, he had to react like a girl when a friend kisses him on the forehead. “I had no idea how a girl would react,” he says. He did what any modern youngster does when in doubt. “I googled, but to no avail. Eventually, after about 20 takes, I finally got it right,” he says.