Cool Bollywood

South superstar Vikram was more than apprehensive playing the role of Aishwarya Rai’s husband in the Hindi version of Mani Ratnam’s Raavan. Firstly, he wasn’t very comfortable with the language. Secondly, he was already playing the eponymous villain in the Tamil version of the same film. Playing the opposite role in the Hindi version was certainly a challenge.

But he was inspired by Aishwarya Rai who acts in both the Hindi and Tamil version. “Initially, I was very scared because I had this mental block (about Hindi). What kept me going was that Ash didn’t know Tamil and she was doing so well,” Vikram said in an interview.

On top of it, everyone in the crew made Vikram comfortable. “Had I been only doing the Hindi version, I would have been really worried. But it is also in Tamil and everyone made me feel quite comfortable,” the 44-year-old actor added.

With Raavan, Vikram has become the first Indian actor, perhaps the first in the world, to play two opposing roles in the same film in two languages. Abhishek Bachchan was also given a similar offer, but he back out of the Tamil version because he wasn’t comfortable with the language.