'I am still developing my image'

With back-to-back hits in Rangoon and Ivan Thanthiran this year, Gautham Karthik expects a lot out of Hara Hara Mahadevaki. He considers his duds to be "trials and errors."

But he didn't think that choosing to do this film was a risk, even though many actors were said to have refused it. "I think people didn't listen to the script properly because if they had, they would've realised that it's not an adult comedy," he says. "It's a youth entertainer made in a very sensible manner aimed at hurting no one's sentiments. I thoroughly enjoyed the script."

Gautham says that the songs penned by the debutant director Santhosh P Jayakumar were instrumental in getting him hooked to the project. "As for my 'image', I don't think about that because I am still developing it. I think I should be experimenting with my films right now," he says.

The last time he tried his hand at humour though, with Yennamo Yedho, it didn't go so well. "You learn as you grow. I did that film in 2013 when I knew nothing about the industry. Now, I've learned a lot of things and I'm applying what I've learned," says Gautham, who thinks that HHM's comedians Sathish, Karunakaran, Mottai Rajendran, Bala Saravanan and Mayilsamy deserve a lot of credit. "The humour has come out extremely well. I don't do any comedy in the film. Whatever humour is there is situational and is carried forward by the comedians." He also adds that the romance angle in this film is something new. "The whole film is about the couple breaking up, and even flashback sequences of how they got together is not the regular formula we're used to seeing. It's actually more about how difficult it is for two people to break up."

HHM wasn't a film he needed to do homework for. "There are some films for which I've put in a lot of homework. For a film like HHM, I knew it wouldn't work. I did for Rangoon. You just believe the director and do what you are asked."

Gautham will be collaborating with HHM's director once again for an adult horror comedy film, Iruttu Araiyil Murattu Kuthu. "Indrajith, my other film, is completed and waiting for release. Sippai is pending too. There are a couple of issues surrounding it but they're being cleared now. Hopefully, by this year end, we'll be going ahead with the release," says Gautham.

I ask him about multistarrers, and he laughs. "I know you're talking about Oru Nalla Naal Paathu Solren (in which he stars alongside Vijay Sethupathi). It's the story which matters at the end of the day. The audience doesn't watch a film just for me. Even Vijay anna will agree with me when I say it's never a one-man show."

Does he feel the pressure to deliver as the son of a successful star like Karthik. "I don't think people think of me that way anymore. So I don't feel that pressure."

Gautham had previously said that only after he becomes a bankable star would he act with his father. "Well, we have to find the script then (laughs)." He adds, "My dad treats me as a son and not as an artiste. So he never keeps tabs on my progress. We don't bring work into each other's lives."