Jayam Ravi in a still from the film Bhoologam.
Chennai:
Actor Jayam Ravi, who is playing the role of a boxer in his upcoming Tamil film Bhoologam, said that he trained for three months for three hours daily under a certified boxing coach called Madhan to get into the skin of his character.
"Director Kalyan, who had worked under S P Jananathan for many films including Peraanmai, wanted me to get the looks of the titular character of the North Madras raw-boxer, before the shoot started," he said.
"These boxers usually have the habit of beefing up for the first couple of months and then they start working out vigorously for a month before the match to get the much-hyped 'V' shape. I almost followed the same by gradually increasing my work-out timings over a period of 3 months. I almost hit the gym for four hours daily in the last few weeks. In between, we also had practice sessions for the fight sequences. It was truly a draining experience, but I had no other choice to play the challenging role. Now, while seeing the final output, all my efforts seem totally justified. Bhoologam will definitely be India's answer to Rocky", Ravi added.
Ravi has three boxing sequences in the film, one of which also features former wrestler and Mad Max: Fury Road actor Nathan Jones. The actor also said that he had to prepare mentally for shooting the boxing matches.
"It's an art which involves a lot of intricacies. I met a lot of boxers to get tips about match temperaments and psychological stamina levels needed at the later stages of the fight. Training for fighting with the seven foot tall Nathan Jones was an experience in itself. Usually, raw-boxing matches are fought at the face level, but for fighting Nathan, I had to train at above eye-level for more than a week," he said.
Ravi also revealed that Hollywood's stunt choreographer Larnell Stovall was employed to conceive and direct the three boxing sequences. "Apart from Mr Stovall, we also took inputs from 'Miracle' Michael, our very own stunt master," he said.
Ravi also said that his last film Thani Oruvan's unprecedented success has indeed motivated him to experiment more. His next would be Shakti Soundar Rajan's Miruthan, a zombie apocalypse film - a first of its kind in Tamil cinema - scheduled to release on Pongal 2016. With an array of potential projects in the pipeline involving top filmmakers, the actor truly seems to be on a roll.
"Director Kalyan, who had worked under S P Jananathan for many films including Peraanmai, wanted me to get the looks of the titular character of the North Madras raw-boxer, before the shoot started," he said.
"These boxers usually have the habit of beefing up for the first couple of months and then they start working out vigorously for a month before the match to get the much-hyped 'V' shape. I almost followed the same by gradually increasing my work-out timings over a period of 3 months. I almost hit the gym for four hours daily in the last few weeks. In between, we also had practice sessions for the fight sequences. It was truly a draining experience, but I had no other choice to play the challenging role. Now, while seeing the final output, all my efforts seem totally justified. Bhoologam will definitely be India's answer to Rocky", Ravi added.
Ravi has three boxing sequences in the film, one of which also features former wrestler and Mad Max: Fury Road actor Nathan Jones. The actor also said that he had to prepare mentally for shooting the boxing matches.
"It's an art which involves a lot of intricacies. I met a lot of boxers to get tips about match temperaments and psychological stamina levels needed at the later stages of the fight. Training for fighting with the seven foot tall Nathan Jones was an experience in itself. Usually, raw-boxing matches are fought at the face level, but for fighting Nathan, I had to train at above eye-level for more than a week," he said.
Ravi also revealed that Hollywood's stunt choreographer Larnell Stovall was employed to conceive and direct the three boxing sequences. "Apart from Mr Stovall, we also took inputs from 'Miracle' Michael, our very own stunt master," he said.
Ravi also said that his last film Thani Oruvan's unprecedented success has indeed motivated him to experiment more. His next would be Shakti Soundar Rajan's Miruthan, a zombie apocalypse film - a first of its kind in Tamil cinema - scheduled to release on Pongal 2016. With an array of potential projects in the pipeline involving top filmmakers, the actor truly seems to be on a roll.
