With Mandela on Netflix, Yogi Babu carves a new identity: ‘For some, I’m an actor; for the others, just a prop’-Entertainment News , Firstpost

The phone keeps ringing for a long time, and that is very unlike Yogi Babu. Usually, however busy, he always picks to say he is in a shoot and will call back. This time, it takes two days. “Sorry ma, they’d tied me up in ropes, and we were hanging in the air for a scene,” he breaks into his trademark laughter, and pauses. He still cannot believe he actually shot for a scene like that.

From earlier being known in Tamil Nadu alone, Babu is now a known face across Netflix subscribers around the world who watched Madonne Ashwin’s Mandela. The film has broken many stereotypes about Babu. For one, it steered clear of the usual habit of making all Yogi Babu jokes stand on a foundation of body shaming. It also made his mother and the rest of family weep with joy when the film premiered on Vijay TV — usually, when the rest of the world laughed at all the body shaming jokes, his mother would turn sad, wondering why they were calling her boy all these names and treating him like a laughing stock.

Mandela was followed by Mari Selvaraj’s Karnan, another film that tapped into Babu’s boundless talent. But then Selvaraj has always seen a side of Babu that others have not. Remember Pariyerum Perumal?

Babu had convinced himself that humour was his calling card. But now, seeing the response to these films, he is wondering if he should do some of these roles too, say about two to three films a year. “Recently, while at a shoot, some fans came to see me, and said that while they love my regular comedy, they would love to see me in these kinds of roles too. I’m here because of them. If they wish to see me this way, I should listen, no?” he says.

Mandela saw people calling up from the other South industries too. “Bharathiraja sir and Bhagyaraj sir called (me). Shivrajkumar anna, Puneeth Rajkumar anna, and Sadhu Kokila sir called from Karnataka. Two or three Malayalam directors called. So many Indian cricketers called,” says an excited Babu. The cricketers’ praise touched him because he was an amateur cricketer too. “Natraj, Vijay Shankar, Washington Sundar, Sadagopan Ramesh… all of them called. It felt very good. Imagine there was a time when I’d go wait to see Ramesh bat. Today, he’s calling me.”

The realisation that he could do slightly serious roles never struck Babu till he saw Comali director Pradeep Ranganathan wipe his tears during a particular scene in Mandela. “I thought, if this fellow who knows me so well, and who has directed me, can cry, then probably I am not that bad with emotion,” laughs Babu.

Ashwin, the director responsible for Babu’s new avatar, was clear he was making a satire. “Yogi Babu’s name came in after I wrote the script. He has an inbuilt desire to do good films, and this synced with him. He liked that he’s not the hero, but a character who leads the story. He liked that he does not have to be humourous, but that the comedy happens around him. He did not have songs. Yes, he took three days to get into the zone, and once he did, he fit beautifully. Seeing the initial footage, he and his friends felt this was a good call.”

“During Mandela, it never struck me that Ashwin was changing my image. But, I realised I was being ‘used’ during shooting like I had never been before. I usually don’t like commenting on my performance but even I liked the scene with Sheela Rajkumar and me, where I tell her to educate the boy. And then I turn silent. That was new to me.”

This then, is a new phase for an actor whose calling card has been his ability to land a punch, his curly hair that has been maintained over the years with shikakai, and his general physique. 

Entertainment journalist Vishal Menon says that Babu is at an interesting place in his career, where he can “play just about anyone —  the comic sidekick, the character actor capable of meaningful roles —  and is someone who has proved he can generate enough interest in a film as its protagonist”. 

It might have taken Babu a long time to get here, but within just one week of Karnan and Mandela, he seems to have become a totally different kind of actor, says Vishal. “He was always good but it’s only now that he has found his space. He has ‘graduated’ from doing comedy alone… something very few comedians have managed to do before him,” he adds.

The struggling years

However far he has come, Babu still remembers the time when he struggled to find three meals a day. He still has friends from that phase in his life, who attest to the fact that then and now Babu has not allowed stardom to colour his attitude. 

Director Muthukumaran, who has made three films, including Dharmaprabhu and Saloon with Yogi Babu, knows the actor from the time when both were strugglers sharing a room in Valasaravakkam, Chennai. “Babu used to work as an assistant director for Vijay TV’s Lollu Sabha, and bring home Rs 150 as batta. All of us would wait for that so that we could buy provisions and cook. There have been times when we had nothing and would store rainwater, boil it,and add some coffee dust to it, and drink that to quell our hunger. Babu was much heavier then, and he would walk everywhere to save money. Seeing his sweaty body, many offices would not let him in. Today, they wait for a chance to sign him up. To his credit, he has never held anything against anyone,” he says.

Babu says that it is not just outsiders who struggle in Chennai. “We local boys do too, even if we are staying with our folks,” says Babu, who grew up in Chennai near Nazarathpettai. He even stayed in Jammu for a year-and-a-half when his father, who was in the army, was posted there.

Forever a comedian 

Does he ever wish to turn into a character actor or a hero? “No. For my face and physique, I can only do certain things. I’m very happy doing what suits me. Till the end, I’d like to be known as a comedian,” says Babu.

As for how he is used on screen, Babu says: “For some people, I’m an actor, for others, I’m a prop on the sets that can be used in any way that benefits the film.

I should accept both, illaya (no)?” he says.

How easy has it been to create humourous content at a time when the world is going through challenging times? “This is my job. Remember what Charlie Chaplin said: ‘I always like walking in the rain, so no one can see me crying.’ Every comedian’s life is like that. We have lost such treasures the past year — Vivek sir most recently, SPB (SP Balasubrahmanyam) sir. My heart is heavy, but once the director calls action, I do my job,” says Babu.

Babu has always worked as a one-man unit. He attends his calls, gives dates, listens to narrations. And even though he has a manager now, he likes to be on top of things. Because, he says, he respects the place he is in, and remembers how he got here. “It’s always better to deal with things directly. There’s less confusion, and bonds stay strong.”

When we spoke last, Babu said he was yet to reach a space where he could tell people what kind of humour he liked doing. Has that changed? “Not really. I tell them I won’t do double meaning dialogues. I cringe when I hear them. As for making fun of the way I look, that’s left to the director and scriptwriter. I don’t interfere in that. I only add certain embellishments and some counters.”

Vishal says even though “Babu’s look is a part of Mandela’s writing, it’s used so cleverly. He’s the kind of actor who has had to suffer a lot of body shaming. But with a film like Mandela, we’re finally seeing him as the character. He stops being Yogi Babu, and as this character, you get a chance to look at how we’ve looked at him in all those roles. It points the finger back at us for accepting only his looks, and nothing beyond that. With its success, I hope he doesn’t have to go back to films where it’s such a big joke that ‘someone like him’ can even fall in love with Nayanthara (in Kolamaavu Kokila).”

The last word, as always, rests with Babu. How does he react when he is called all the horrid names he is called on screen? “I don’t react. It gives some happiness to some people, and I think I should leave it at that,” he says, and recalls how at an event, a child called him with deep affection, “Pannimoonjivaaya uncle” (Pig-faced mouth uncle). His team was in shock. “But I only heard the ‘uncle.’ How will a child know? She only called me what she’s heard people watch at home. I told them to focus on the uncle, and not what preceded that,” he smiles.

Mandela is streaming on Netflix India.