Vijay’s son Jason Sanjay flatly refused a movie offer from Alphonse Puthren at age 20

For the son of a superstar, entering the industry carries a unique kind of pressure. Every decision is scrutinised and the first step is compared. Jason Sanjay traced his love for storytelling back to his childhood, when watching films was less a hobby and more a way of seeing the world. “Since I come from a film family, I’ve been going to shooting spots frequently from a very young age. I’ve also watched many premiere shows. Watching films has always been one of my main pastimes.”

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But what set him apart from a passive viewer, he explained, was the way he processed what he watched. Jason said, “Whenever I watch a film, I closely observe the way the story is told, where the story begins, how it opens and how it is narrated. For me, it is almost like a game.” The instinct to retell stories to friends who had not seen the films, he believes, was where the director in him first showed up. “When I talk about a film with friends, I’ll excitedly say, ‘Dude, I watched this movie,’ and start telling them the story. I think that was my starting point.”

Acting offer he turned down

Jason Sanjay also opened up about declining an acting offer from Alphonse Puthren, studying filmmaking in Canada, and how a story he narrated to a producer without any expectations became his first film. Jason revealed that he was around 20 years old when director Alphonse Puthren conceived a coming-of-age story and reached out to him after seeing one of his photographs.

The Sigma director said he turned the film down. “I was still a student at the time and had not yet thought of cinema as a professional path. More importantly, I didn’t want to listen to the narration and later turn down a filmmaker I admired a lot,” he said.

Instead, he encouraged the team to find someone better suited for the role. But he acknowledged that being considered by a director of Puthren’s calibre was a proud moment.

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From a Canadian film school to Sigma

Jason Sanjay studied filmmaking in Canada, and it was during that period that the earliest version of what would become Sigma took shape. He wrote a 120-page feature-length screenplay but knew he was not yet in a position to produce it. “I wondered whether I should take one scene from the script and film it, or condense the entire story into a short film. Eventually, I made it into a 20-minute short film,” he said.

The purpose, he explained, was self-assessment. “I made that film primarily to understand what I was capable of as a director, what worked for me and what didn’t.” After returning to India, he explored multiple ideas before settling on one he felt strongly about. He tested it with friends and people who understood cinema, incorporated their feedback, and refined the script. The connection to a producer came through his uncle Sanjeev, who introduced him to Tamil Kumaran of Lyca Productions.

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Even at that stage, Jason said he did not expect the meeting to lead to an actual film. “I wasn’t thinking that I was actually going to make a film. I simply thought, let me narrate a story to a producer. At least I’ll gain some experience from it,” he said, adding, “I narrated the story to Tamil Kumaran sir, and he really liked it. After that, I met Subaskaran sir, and he liked the story too. That story eventually became the Sigma you are now going to see.”

Why a heist film and not a love story

Jason Sanjay acknowledged that most people expected a 25-year-old first-time director to make a youthful romantic drama. He went in the opposite direction. “A lot of people would have thought that at my age I would be doing a youthful romantic drama, but I was attracted to an adventurous heist movie with a bunch of characters,” he said. The debutant director pointed out that Tamil cinema has not explored the heist genre extensively compared to romance, which made the idea more exciting for him. But he was quick to add that Sigma is not a pure action film. “It’s a mix of romance, friendship, comedy, emotion and adventure.”

On acting

Jason Sanjay also addressed the speculation triggered by his cameo appearance in the Sigma Style promotional music video. He said the appearance should not be read as the beginning of an acting career. He was part of the video because he wanted to help establish the world of the film and enjoyed being involved in the marketing.

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“The questions of acting can be answered only after the film has been released,” he said. He admitted that every director carries “an actor inside,” especially when directing performers on set, and that he has that instinct too. But for now, directing is where his focus is. The rest, he suggested, can wait.

He also revealed that he already has two or three story ideas lined up for future projects, which he plans to develop after Sigma releases.