Entertainment - India;Terminator as villain in Tamil movie

Prema Manmadhan

KOCHI: After crossover films, Hollywood is crossing over to India. Former Mr. Universe Roland Kickinger, who dons the role of the killing machine in Terminator Salvation - The Future Begins, is playing the villain in the Kollywood movie Peraanmai.

Atop a hill in verdant Vagamon, the crane whirls around while hero Jayam Ravi and villain Kickinger grapple with a knife.

The shot is taken again and cleared. The six-pack abs is clear and the biceps cry for attention.

“Vanakkam,” says Kickinger with a guffaw as he sits down later on a bench in the lush outdoors of Vagamon, where much of the movie is being shot. Wherever you turn, there are undulating green hills.

That was just what director Jananathan told him when he offered him the role, in Los Angeles — that he would be wonderstruck by the beauty of Kerala.

“Being directly in touch with nature is great. In Hollywood, most of the filming is done in the studios, whereas this is real outdoors,” says a beaming Kickinger, who replaces Arnold Schwarzenegger in the next of the Terminator series, the fourth. He is scheduled to play the T-800 character in the next two sequels too, he said.

The 20 days spent shooting for Peraanmai is unforgettable, says Kicker. The fact that there are no pucca call-sheets as they have in Hollywood surprises him.

“You work very hard here. There are more obstacles to overcome. In Hollywood we look at the clock, but not here. But the passion is the same,” says the Austrian-born who was inspired to be a body-uilder after watching Conan the Barbarian.

The 6 feet-5inches man was all praise for the art director of Peraanmai, Selvakumar whose missiles “looked so real.”

He was as tight-lipped about his role in Peraanmai as that of Terminator Salvation…, except to say that it was a tough role, shooting in forests and tough terrain.