After 24 years of working as an actor, extensively in the Tamil film industry, actor Shaam made his OTT debut with the ongoing series Goli Soda Rising, which debuted on Disney+ Hotstar on Friday. Shaam, who is known for his soft and calm demeanour roles onscreen, and mainly romantic dramas, took a change in career choice, to do more roles that are action-oriented and rough. The latest series is a testament to it, in which he plays a roughie controlling the harbour in north Chennai.

Speaking of this, Shaam says, “After Varisu, I was called by Vijay Milton (creator of Goli Soda Rising) and gave me a narration of creating a new world that altogether is different and will collide with the one he already created through his film Goli Soda. While the film revolved around a group of boys in Koyembedu market, the other world is set in the harbour regions where my character slowly grows up to become a don. There was more scope for me to perform, which I have not done before.”

Shaam Interview for Goli Soda Rising

Shaam who worked with Vijay Milton for the first time in Goli Soda Rising, realised that the filmmaker does not have the habit of giving dialogues to his actors. “He designed my character look, but when I reached the sets on the first day and asked for the dialogue papers. But later, he told me how actors tend to get monotonous if given dialogues and instead he would give me certain words and lines, which I can develop and conjure dialogues on spot,” the actor mentions. He also adds how this method was particularly different to work since the cues given for actors keep changing, which soon turned a unique and challenging experience.

“Most of portions were composed in one shot, and given the artist combinations which made the process difficult. But I am glad this came my way because it helps in improvisations. One thing that I realised during the dubbing, mainly because the dialogues are composed by us, we have also used body language to carefully aid us in places, which also was a big learning,” he adds. Shaam says the first five episodes out of the 10 in total, are dedicated to establishing the characters, while the series then takes off on a serious note.

Shaam on working in series

Goli Soda Rising features various known faces, including Cheran, Ramya Nambeesan, Pugazh, and others, along with Shaam. The actor believes that star ensemble casts help a project uplift in many ways. “Today, Tamil cinema is struggling to prove 2.5 hours of film. It is dicey situation because there is no story that can be handled by only one person. It will be cliché or repeated. But when it comes to series and more people come together, we are able to pull off a 10-hour series. In Goli Soda Rising, various characters have got their own tracks, which gives some variety for audience, and interest how they will combine. That way it is healthy sign when actors come together, there will be new plot lines and more room for experimentation. Again, if you see a film like Coolie, Rajinikanth sir is already a superstar and you can see Nagarjuna sir, and Upendra sir also being cast alongside him. This means everyone will get good roles and more interesting stories. Audiences have become very choosy and it is us who have to cater to their needs,” Shaam notes.

Goli Soda Rising marks Shaam’s series debut. The difference he finds between working in a series and film is that how the plot in long format storytelling has the room to branch out into different storyline and tracks. “Disney+ Hotstar has given us a good budget and all the accommodations for us to shoot. It was as good as shooting for films, but only that there are different plotlines here. I hope in the future many such actors come together to work on projects together,” he says.

Shaam on his upcoming projects

Shaam speaks about his next film Asthram, which release after Diwali. Revealing it to be a revenge drama told in a thriller format, the actor says it is an “intelligent film” and shot in Kodaikanal. “The highlight of the film would be the music by K. S. Sundaramurthy, who has done some amazing re-recording,” he adds. Shaam also has a film under Vijay Adhiraj’s directorial Nodikku Nodi in which he will be playing a druggie. He is also part of director RS Durai Senthilkumar’s next film with Legend Saravanan, in which Shaam plays a pivotal role. “It will be shot in Thootukudi and some abroad locales, and I will be joining the sets soon,” Shaam signs off.

Goli Soda Rising consists of 10 episodes, with first three streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. The platform will release every new episode a week.

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