Comedian Goundamani, who rarely talks to the press or makes public appearances, was speaking to a close journalist-friend of him recently. When the scribe asked him if Goundar had noticed the fact that comedian Santhanam was doing nothing but aping his brand of comedy, Gounder replied in the affirmative and said that he was helpless in this regard.

Gounder, who had rubbed shoulders with all the top heroes during the past 30 years including Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan, Sathyaraj, Vijaykanth, Prabhu, Karthick and Arjun (to name a few) and had successfully held his own in their films, reportedly regretted that those who don’t possess a ‘unique style’ of their own shouldn’t enter the film industry in any capacity.

When asked about his response, Santhanam candidly admitted that he was indeed aping the dialogue-delivery style of the veteran comedian and said that “All throughout my life, I had been a great fan of Goundamani Sir. I can’t help it if my acting reflects his brand of comedy; it’s only inevitable.

“Just like no other actor can avoid picking up traces of the late Sivaji Ganesan’s style of acting, I can’t do without aping my mentors. I don’t think there is anything wrong with it. Of late, though, I have been trying hard to create my own ‘unique’ style of acting,” says Santhanam who says that he didn’t ‘raise’ his fee but it’s the producers who are offering him more than what he had been paid earlier.