It's not always that Kamal Haasan talks about his personal choices. But the superstar was quite candid when he promoted the Hindi version of his Tamil magnum opus, Dasavatharam. This is what he told India Blooms correspondent Sreya Basu.
Dasavatharam took one-and-a-half years to shoot and the Hindi version took almost a year to release. Is that what you call magnum opus?
[Laughs] You are right! See, a film like Dasavathaaram is very difficult for me, especially when you are playing all 10 characters. It's like going back to a film school. We shot for 200 odd days, of which only 50 days I was a normal person. That is, 150 odd days of make-up, dialogues and acting.
Trust me, it wasn't fun then but now seeing the audience reaction, it was worth it. The Tamil version was released last June. We were ready with the Hindi version then. But the delay in release was the director's decision.
You have played two characters at the same time in Hindustani and Appu Raja. How was it playing 10 characters?
Ten times difficult! I wanted to do a remake of Sivajisahab's (Ganesan) Navaratri, which was already done in Hindi by Haribhai (Sanjeev Kumar) as Naya Din Nayi Raat, where he played nine characters at the same time. But then, I thought why not make something new.
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