Veteran actor Kamal Haasan is known as much for his acting skills as for his technical excellence and his penchant for getting involved in all aspects of film-making.
You would think that he has seen it all, having started as a child artiste back in the 1960s. But the experimenter that he is, Kamal feels there is more scope for innovating. He will shortly appear on the small screen when he hosts the Tamil version of Bigg Boss. That doesn’t seem to be enough.
Kamal says the ubiquitous cell phone screen is where we should be heading towards. “Because the world of cinema as we know is obsolete,” Kamal says, nonchalantly.
“Everybody is thinking that cinema means big screen and theatres,” he said. But time has come to see beyond the limitations of big screens that reach only a fraction of the population. “True enough that theatres and cinema are not going to die any time soon. But the way people consume it is going to be more personal than it is now,” he explained.
“It is just like how people are doing archana for gods through Skype,” he quipped.
This is probably one of the reasons why he chose to be the host in Bigg Boss, which has an even bigger reach than the movies, which run a few months or even a few days in cinemas. “Through Bigg Boss, every Saturday I will reach so many millions of people. It is not possible if you are just a movie star,” he said.
He is convinced that the idea of cinema is changing all over the world. It is evident from the number of Hollywood celebrities doing programmes on television. According to Kamal, it will be the best medium an actor can ask for, as sheer diversity and time invested bring out an actor’s best expression.
“The next attempt would be to go into cell phone screen,” he said. “It is a lovely place and a great opportunity,” he added. It could be in any form, be it a web series that is a rage right now or something new that might crop up in the future. But that is where the cinema is heading, he says.
As the screen grows more personal, tackling criticism is a challenge, he agrees.
“But then again I have been trained to accept it since the time I was a child actor. This is not anything new,” Kamal said, as he rushed off to his next appointment.