Why did the film, Dr. Ambedkar, take nearly three years to get to the finishing line?
Because of its large canvas. We shot in so many locations: Nagpur, Mahad, Nasik, Pune, London, America. It’s a period picture, we had to recreate the 1950s and ’60s. It isn’t a fantasy where you can take all sorts of liberties. It’s the real thing. Moreover, we had to work on a controlled budget. Such things take time. Q. How did you prepare for the role? I went through the script in detail. Also, I read all the books I possibly could. I’m an actor, I depended on the director to tell me what to do. Q. You’re supposed to be a superstar right? I’m an actor, not a superstar. Q. Which other actors from Kerala do you like? I like all of them. Jayaram is good. In any case, films run nowadays, irrespective of the cast. Actors can help in the initial collections when they do, they’re called stars. I guess I can be called a star too, because people go to see my films. Q. Do you like the word superstar? I’m not crazy about it. You can be a superstar for a decade, two decades maybe. But you can b
