Sibiraj, who made his debut with Student No 1 in 2003, thinks he should’ve honed his acting and dancing skills before making it his launchpad. Speaking to The Times of India, he said:
“I enrolled in acting classes after joining the industry. Also, the films that I did initially were with my father. I was just doing the duet and fight portions, and he had the meatier role. It was only after I did my first few films, I realised that I needed some more training in areas like dance and stunts. At one stage, I realised I shouldn’t have started so early in my career. And that’s one of the reasons why I took a break after Lee, for four years. I did a three-month acting course in the US and honed my skills. I needed a comeback film, and Naaigal Jaakirathai was just that,” he said, adding that the film was his first commercial success and gave him the confidence to experiment with scripts.
“I am sure Sathya will be a game-changer for me,” he added.
The actor now chooses films that suit him best. “Expectations will always be there. I cannot catch up to my father since he’s in a different stage right now. I should choose scripts that I feel would work. The kind of content we see now is different. What worked five years ago will not do well now. People expect more realistic subjects… strong emotional content narrated in a sensible manner.”
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This has made him more selective about projects; several actors have had their careers vanished when they concentrated on doing more films for the numbers as opposed to the quality, he said. “Even though Naaigal Jaakirathai did well, I took a year to do Jackson Durai. And I generally do one or two films at a time. It’s tough at times because you tend to lose some good films, too.”
Apart from Sathya with Remya Nambeesan and Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Sibiraj also has Ranga with Nikhila Vimal, an action-thriller shot mostly in Kashmir.