“Happy is an understatement,” says Jayam Ravi, flush with happiness about the response for ‘Thani Oruvan’ in the United States. Reports say that it not only got rave reviews, but had the coffers ringing, giving stiff competition to its counterparts ‘Drishyam’ and ‘Bhajrangi Bhaijaan’.

Elaborating on the U.S. response, Ravi says: “It is truly overwhelming. We did not expect this when we were shooting, though we were confident of the script.”

Pointing out that for Tamil cinema viewers the script has been the hero, Jayam Ravi states that ‘Thani Oruvan’ is the “most sincere film with no item song, no comedy”. He deems the movie more an achievement than a success because it has broken the stereotype that only commercial flicks sell.

“Success is attributed to the audience for accepting this kind of a movie. This is not a new trend. The popularity of the hero has little to do with a movie’s success. When there is a big star the expectations are very high. When the movie does not meet up to the exceptions of the audience, it flops,” says the hero, popular for his next-door-boy sweetness.

On the stellar star cast in the movie, he says that Arvind Swamy suited well for the villain role. “He was chosen for his good looks. This is to indicate that gone are the days when the villains looked ugly and bad. Today a villain with good looks sells.”

On being a non-controversial hero with nothing much to do with the turbulent Nadigar Sangam, he says that his focus is work and family. In his leisure, he spends time out with his college friends. He says he ensures that he attends parties only with his wife, “does not give room for gossip”.

Talking about his next movie ‘Mirudhan’, where he plays a traffic constable, he says that the name means half animal/half human, and is a horror-thriller.

His other would be with Prabhu Deva Productions, where he is to be cast opposite a Bollywood actor.

With ‘Thani Oruvan’ getting offers to be remade in Hindi and Telugu, will he be interested in acting in them, which means will he make his move into Bollywood ? He says he does not differentiate. For him it is all Indian cinema and moving from one language to another is inevitable.

The actor was here to participate at the Face-to-Face event conducted by GRD College of Arts and Science.