July/August 2006.
Suriya was the guest at the inauguration of our school culturals. It was the time when the buzz around Sillunu Oru Kadhal was sky-high. AR Rahman’s chartbuster album was playing everywhere. Suriya’s impending marriage with Jyotika was the biggest news. On the career front, he was definitely on his most successful upward swing. Just imagine an actor having done films like Mounam Pesiyadhe, Kaakha Kaakha, Pithamagan, Perazhagan, Aaytha Ezhuthu, Aaru, Maayavi and Ghajini within the span of 4 years. Suriya was cementing his stardom and was right on track of converting it into superstardom.
Suriya was a bonafide heartthrob. He was a much bigger heartthrob then than he is now. People who liked men wanted their dream man to be like Suriya. The rest who wanted to be that dream man for others… wanted to be Suriya.
As I said, he was the guest at our school culturals. Now, this wasn’t the time of smartphones. Most of us only had “basic mobiles”. So, a photo with Suriya was possible only if you were in close quarters with him while he walked from the gate to the stage. Now… everyone wanted a photo with him, and you either had to be artistically inclined enough to be on stage or influential enough to be his entourage. I was neither. I saw him, yes.
But… I was not even in his eyeline.
I was distraught and behaved like the fox who didn’t get the grapes. All my energies were trained to make myself believe that Suriya wasn’t that big a star for me to feel bad about not getting a photo with him. Point to be noted… I was 17 and my ego was the size of a football field. That is why, in a way, I was happy about Sillunu Oru Kadhal receiving a cold reception. I didn’t get a photo, he didn’t get a hit. I thanked Karma for giving Suriya a taste of being rejected… just like he did to me.
Of course, Suriya didn’t have the faintest idea who I was.
April 2019
I was a cinema journalist now and was attending the audio launch of NGK. I was coming face-to-face with Suriya for the first time since 2006. Once the event got over, I was close enough to get that photo I wanted when I was 17. But then, I walked away from it. Now, it wasn’t a case of me snubbing him. Of course, he didn’t have the faintest idea who I was. But it was to do with the fact that despite being almost 30, and having met and interviewed a lot of stars, both in cinema and sports, when I saw Suriya at that NGK event, the 17-year-old boy in me returned. Not the 17-year-old who was spiteful about not getting that photo. It was that teenager who spent the night before his school culturals picking the album to add the photo he took with Suriya. What if that 17-year-old was disappointed all over again? Why make that innocuous kid feel spiteful again?
I voluntarily moved away from his eyeline to ensure I don’t fixate on this missed opportunity.
Of course, Suriya didn’t have the faintest idea who I was. But I was just happy to have seen him from a distance closer than what I could achieve in 2006.
February 2020
The marketing team of Suriya’s Soorarai Pottru chartered a flight to take young kids on their first flying experience. Certain media houses were invited to be part of the event and cover it. I too was there as the Cinema Express representative. Even before Suriya had come, I had interacted with the kids present at the airport. The excitement I saw in the faces of those kids isn’t easy to put in words. After a couple of hours of talking with the kids and briefly interacting with their teachers, we were all on the flight and waited for Suriya and the rest of the Soorarai Pottru crew to board it too.
While we were up in the air, Suriya was walking around personally interacting with these kids. He made his way up the flight and briefly stopped to talk to the kids sitting a couple of rows behind my seat. I was listening to the spirited and enterprising conversation. One of those kids handed me his phone and asked me to take a pic of them with Suriya. I happily obliged. After the photo, Suriya continued interacting with the other kids.
Then… the 17-year-old in me woke up again. It was probably triggered by seeing these other kids realising one of their dreams.
When Suriya crossed my seat, I stood up and asked if he’d mind posing for a photo with me. One of my fellow passengers offered to take the photo. I refused outright. I wouldn’t place my dreams in someone else’s hands… Not this time… I was so close to fulfilling it.
After I clicked the photo, with him standing next to me in a dapper suit, I introduced myself and congratulated him for Soorarai Pottru. I also made it a point to thank him for what he was doing for the kids present in the plane.
He must have thought I was referring to only the other children and not the 17-year-old whose wish was fulfilled too.
Nevertheless… it took me fourteen years, almost like a vanavaasam. But two things happened that day.
Suriya did have the faintest idea as to who I am.
And…
I finally… was in his eyeline.
Avinash Ramachandran 