Vishal answers if Mark Antony can survive the Jawan onslaught in theatres: ‘You get a film like this once in ten years’

“This is the first time I am doing a dual role in 19 years. After 32 films, I get to do two roles in a movie – father and son. It’s a time travel movie. You get a film like this once in five or ten years, which is convincing not only to the city audience but also reaching out to the rural viewers,” Vishal shared with much enthusiasm in his voice.

The actor plays the role of Antony, who is a gangster in the 1970s, and the son, who is a simple mechanic in the 1990s. The story is about time travel through a special instrument called ‘Chiranjeevi’ and how the father-son together fight evil.

For Vishal, Mark Antony is a sure-shot deal as it offers everything that a movie lover wants to see in a film, especially in times when the audience is spoilt for choices.

“There was so much scope for acting, so much scope for the film to be interesting for the audience, and this is the most important thing we have to see post-Covid because the audience has decided which movie to go for. They have curtailed the number of films to go to the theatre,” he said.

The actor elaborated, “It’s not like they go for 50 and 60 films. Now they have started saving up money and are going for only particular movies that are appealing to them in terms of the teaser or theatrical trailer or something that draws them. So I felt that this film has all the elements to bring the audience to the theatre. Everything fell in place with the right producer, choreographer, and stuntman.”

Interestingly, the film’s shooting didn’t happen separately for the two timelines, which are 20 years apart.

“One day, I played the gangster where I wear a beard, prosthetic makeup, a wig, the green lens and have a different body language. And then the next day, I had to play the son, who is docile, timid, doesn’t know how to fight. That’s a different get-up altogether. I told my director that this way I will become a split personality by the end of the film,” Vishal shared.

Since Mark Antony is a time travel movie, it is CGI-heavy. Talking about the same, Vishal said, “Around 3,000 shots were given for CG. So if we are shooting a scene in the car, the left side is CG – the old Mardras.”

Mark Antony will be released in Tamil globally on September 15 and in Hindi on September 22. Besides this, the movie will also be released in Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.

The actor shares an interesting anecdote from the dubbing of the film. Since he dubbed in Tamil and Telugu, Vishal had to do four different voices to justify his double role.

“The dubbing part was the most difficult part. I had to do four voice modulations for each language. One is the normal voice in which I speak to you, the other one is where I had to hold two fingers against my throat to give a hoarse, cracked voice, which was of the father and then there is another voice where I have to strangle my neck and speak in a coarse voice. It was very difficult to do this all in Telugu,” he said

The actor added on a light note, “Then I said, ‘Ok, Hindi I am not doing it.’ I don’t think I will be able to do this again.”