Exclusive! Dinesh Prabhakar: Ajith performed most of the bike sequences in Valimai without a stunt double

Much before the pandemic and the OTT trend caught on, Malayalam actor and casting director Dinesh Prabhakar was among the first from the South to gain national popularity through Amazon Prime Video’s webseries The Family Man. The past year, he has starred in three big Malayalam direct-to-OTT releases – Mohanlal’s Drishyam 2, Fahadh Faasil’s Malik and Prithviraj Sukumaran’s Bro Daddy. The actor, however, admits he’s a fan of the big screen experience and that’s why he has high hopes pinned on Ajith’s much-awaited Valimai, which hits theatres on February 24.

In a quick chat, Dinesh, who plays a pivotal character in H Vinoth’s Tamil action-thriller, talks about his experience working with the Tamil superstar, his OTT releases and more.

You had collaborated with H Vinoth and Ajith earlier in Nerkkonda Paarvai. Was that how you landed the role in Valimai?

I only had a single scene in the movie and didn’t have any combination sequences with Ajith sir. I am hoping the reason Vinoth cast me in Valimai was my performance in the police station scene in Nerkkonda Paarvai. This, however, is a role with much more visibility and space. Also, I got to share screen space with Malayalam actors Pearle Maaney and Dhruvan in the film too.

How was it working with Ajith?

Valimai is an action film and I don’t think there has been another South movie, if not an Indian movie, with so many bike stunt sequences. What astonished me was Ajith sir performed most of the stunt sequences himself, without a stunt double. When I was there on the sets, there were a few accidents where he fell off the bike and had cuts in his arms. If that happened to a star in Malayalam cinema, the shoot would have been delayed. But for Valimai, he immediately got up and was ready for the next take.

You would also be surprised by how much he remembers about you. In my case, when I first met him, he asked me about my family and six months later, he would remember all the names. Also, though I have heard of his humility, I thought it would be hard to keep that up every day for a star. But it’s sort of a habit for him. Right after he arrives on sets, he would meet everyone including the person who is cleaning the plates for lunch and ask them if they are keeping alright. He almost makes us feel arrogant because he is someone who wouldn’t sit if there’s not enough chairs for everyone.

Last year, you were part of several big OTT releases including Drishyam 2 and Malik, where you played a pivotal role as Peter Esthappan. While the latter might not have the budget of Valimai, it was still a big film as per Malayalam industry’s standards.

Malik had a lot of specialties because it was helmed by Mahesh Narayanan and had Fahadh Faasil in the lead. It was a film inspired by real incidents and told through different time periods in a massive scale in Malayalam. The effort that went into acting in the film was stupendous because we had to shoot for almost six months.

For every time period in the movie, we had to lose or gain weight to change our getup and we had to physically do this. Mahesh would give us details on how much weight we had to reduce and even down to the hair growth of our beards. He wanted it to be that authentic. Also, we had to endure the heat at sea, beaches and the rains during the shoot. Because of all the effort that went into the making of the film, we were all hoping to see it on the big screen. For instance, the boat sequence would have had a bigger impact in a theatre than while watching it on a phone screen. Unfortunately, that’s when the COVID-19 cases peaked and we had to resort for an OTT release.

Even during Drishyam 2, which was my first movie with Lalettan after all these years, we were hoping it would release in theatres. My part as security Rajan was pivotal in the film and while I did get a lot of appreciation, I thought it would have had more impact if it released in cinema halls.

I did Bro Daddy because Prithviraj wanted me to. It was a film that was viewed widely and I got a lot of appreciation from people, saying that my character was the one who brings the twist in the plot.

What are your upcoming projects?

I am also playing a notable role in R Madhavan’s directorial Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, which is based on Nambi Narayanan sir’s life. It also has guest appearances by Shah Rukh Khan and Suriya in different language versions of it. It’s again a pan-Indian film that is currently scheduled for a July 2022 release. I am now shooting in Kozhikode for Padachone Ingalu Katholi, which has Sreenath Bhasi, Grace Antony and Ann Sheethal.

Also read: Exclusive! Dinesh Prabhakar joins Farhan Akhtar’s Dongri to Dubai and Ashutosh Rana’s Baba Black Sheep