As 2025 approaches its halfway point, Tamil film industry actor Bagavathi Perumal has already released six films this year. His most recent film, The Hunt - The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case, is a SonyLIV series that is based on actual events surrounding the former Prime Minister's murder by a suicide bomber in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. Prior to this, he had starring roles in popular movies like Tourist Family and Kuberaa.

Bagavathi Perumal played K Ragothaman, one of the CBI officers who was a member of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) looking into the notorious murder case, in the series that you can watch on OTTplay Premium.

Interview with Bagavathi Perumal:

Bagavathi Perumal explains that he joined the project after winning the part in a casting call and subsequent audition. "I had submitted several interrogation scenes to the casting call staff. I got along well with them since they were the ones who cast Monica, O My Darling. I had acted in accordance with the character specifics they had provided.

According to the actor, Ragothaman was essential to the investigation and conducted the fieldwork. "Thankfully, YouTube has a lot of interviews of him. He was willing to discuss his career after he retired. “I had been able to gather as much data as I could for my position as a result of this,” Bagavathi Perumal stated.

But even before this, Bagavathi Perumal had been aware of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case even since it took place, and this is because the actor’s father was a BSNL employee. As he says it was a classic case reverse engineering where he knew much about the role even before he took up the character as opposed to doing research after bagging the role, Bagavathi Perumal said, “Even before the radio announced it, we had come to know about the assassination before it was announced. Since Rajiv Gandhi case is the first major bomb blast incident recorded in Tamil Nadu, the case was even more talked about at that time. Given the political history with LTTE as a state, we were well connected and aware of the events more than the north India, both politically and emotionally.”

In the south business, according to Bagavathi Perumal, casting has grown to be a procedure. "We might not have a specific title called casting director in the south because the majority of associate directors perform the function. Delhi Prasad, the director of Tughlaq Durbar, was in charge of casting for Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom. The sole benefit of using a casting agency is that it has a useful database of musicians.

The reason the southern region hasn't embraced OTT space yet.

Additionally, it is clear that the Hindi film industry has embraced the OTT space in the shape of movies and series, but the trend has not yet caught on in the south. Veteran director KS Ravikumar was informed by Bagavathi Perumal that producing a web series requires the same amount of work as producing four movies, but the financial rewards are far less. The Hindi market includes both budget and markets. Because he was performance-oriented, a performer like Manoj Bajpayee didn't receive the credit he deserved in his movies. However, his popularity soared after starring in a web series like Family Man. However, this is not a trend in Tamil. Bagavathi Perumal emphasizes that budget allocation is different in the north and south markets and that it is a critical factor in producing films and web series.

The actor resumes talking about his performance as Ragothaman, the real-life officer who was careful to maintain a neutral position and refrain from expressing his own views on the matter. "His goal is just to identify the culprit in the case, in which he was representing India." He didn't leave room for individual opinion. Ragothaman's work is divided among the numerous characters in this web series, ensuring that it is not biased.

He claims that stories cannot be written without supporting characters, as evidenced by his appearances in movies like Blue Star, Tourist Family, 96, and Super Deluxe. "How long would the narrative depend entirely on the hero and heroine? The tale reveals how interesting supporting characters may be. In reality, a detailed supporting character is a benchmark or criterion for judging a script in every good movie: how meaningful the characters are and why they are there. If they're merely there for the sake of it, it reflects badly on the entire narrative. It won't thrill us.

Hence, naturally Bagavathi Perumal feels that series format gives an upper hand to explore every character in detail, because the long format does not allow one to travel along with one character like in films. “In films, the time constraint is limited, and audience are asked to follow the protagonist. In web series, every character gets a defining arc even if they are supporting character.”

Concluding, Bagavathi Perumal says that working in Hunt made him feel astonished of the officials who worked relentlessly during a time when technology was not so advanced. “They excelled and managed to find the culprits of this high-profile case and importance of their intelligence.”

Read Also: Vaani Kapoor: Female Actors Redefining Action on OTT

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