Vijay Sethupathi is very happy that his two back-to-back villainous turns in the Tamil Master and the Telugu Uppeni have paid rich dividends.
However the magnificent performer says he will suffer an abiding sorrow regarding his Telugu debut in Uppeni. “I couldn’t dub my own lines in Telugu. It was my first Telugu film and I did not have a strong enough command over the language. I tried my best. But everyone felt I was speaking Telugu with an accent. Best to get someone else to dub.”
Now, Vijay Sethupathi,a stickler for perfection, feels he did not get it right. “Audiences saw two different performances up there. The one that I gave on screen.And the other one given by the dubbing artiste.It’s two different performances.”
Happy as he is by the film’s success Vijay is troubled by the linguistic lacuna . “If I had to do it again I’d make sure I know the language well enough to be accepted by audiences in Andhra and Telangana.”
But they have accepted his performance warmly in the Telugu belt?
“It is their kindness, their love for me. That makes me even more conscious of making sure I speak Telugu like a local next time,” Sethupathi vows.