Movie World
Kangana Ranaut to play Jayalalithaa – Part 1
By Dinesh Kamath
Kangana Ranaut will be playing the
role of none other than the legendary Tamil actor and politician Jayalalithaa.
The film will be titled Thalaivi, and Jaya in Hindi, and will be directed by
Devi filmmaker AL Vijay.
Kangana chose to act in the film
because she believes that Jayalalithaa is one of the biggest female success
stories of this century. She was a superstar and went on to become an iconic
politician. It’s a great concept for mainstream film. Kangana feels honoured to
be a part of this mega project.
Jayalalithaa was indeed one of the
most prominent leaders of our country. Making a film on her life is a big
responsibility. The makers of her biopic are determined to make the film with
utmost care and honesty. Many movie
goers feel happy about the fact that this film has one of India’s biggest star
and the very talented Kangana Ranaut to portray the dynamic role of our very
dynamic leader.
The film will be written by KV
Vijayendra Prasad, who has also penned Baahubali and Manikarnika, and will be
produced by Vishnu Vardhan Induri & Shaailesh R Singh under the banners of
Vibri & Karma Media and Entertainment. This is Shaaileshes fifth
collaboration with Kangana. He finds working with her an enriching experience
and he is glad that this time his film is based on an eminent personality,
Kangana was last seen in
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi which was a biopic of Rani Laxmibai. She is
also working on a biopic of herself. Kangana strongly feels that Jayalalithaa’s
Story is similar to her life story.
The Tamilians are excited about the
fact that actress Kangana Ranaut will next be seen in a bilingual film titled
Jaya, which is based on the life of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and
yesteryear actress Jayalalithaa. In fact Kangana always wanted to work in
regional films. Since people down South do not watch Hindi films, Kangana feels
there's a disconnect with that part of the country.
So let us now wait and see how 32
year old Kangana will look like when she steps into the shoes of the late
Jayalalithaa, who was fondly referred to as "Puratchi Thalaivi",
which means "revolutionary leader".
The reason why Kangana always
wanted to work in regional films is because when she would go to Tamil Nadu or
Andhra Pradesh, she would realise that people over there only watch films made
by their local film industry. So there is a disconnect with that part of the
country. She was just waiting for a good opportunity to work over there and
this film just came her way.
Actually, Kangana was working on
her own biopic, but her (Jayalalithaa) story is very similar to her story. In
fact, it was a bigger success story than hers. When Kangana heard the narration
of this film, she found many similarities between both the stories. So when she
had the option to do a film based on Jayalalitha’s story or her story, she
decided on the former.
The film will be made mainly in
Tamil and will release in Hindi as well. Kangana will indeed make an effort to
learn Tamil for the film. If only she fails miserably the makers of the film
will have to look for an option for her dubbing. But Kangana is confident that
she will learn the language.
Thus Titled Thalaivi in Tamil and
Jaya in Hindi, the film will be directed by AL Vijay, one of the leading
filmmakers down South who has earlier directed landmark films such as
Madrasapattinam and Deiva Thirumagal. I once again repeat that the film is
written by K.V. Vijayendra Prasad of Baahubali and Manikarnika fame, the film
will be produced by Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Shaailesh R Singh under the
banner of Vibri and Karma Media and Entertainment.
It will be great to witness Kangana
Ranaut portraying the actress-turned-politician, Jayalalitha who was a
superstar and went on to become an iconic politician, it’s a great concept for
a mainstream film. The makers of the film have also taken permission from the
late leader's nephew Deepak.
Now a few words on Jayalalithaa
based on whom the biopic will be made. Jayaram Jayalalithaa[b] (24 February
1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and film actor who served five
terms as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for over fourteen years between 1991
and 2016. From 1989 she was the general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), a Dravidian party whose cadre revered her as their
Amma (mother), Puratchi Thalaivi (revolutionary leader) and Thanga Tharagai
(golden maiden). Her critics in the media and the opposition accused her of
fostering a personality cult, and of demanding absolute loyalty from AIADMK
legislators and ministers who often publicly prostrated themselves before her.
Jayalalithaa first came into
prominence as a leading film actress in the mid-1960s. Though she had entered
the profession reluctantly, upon the urging of her mother to support the
family, Jayalalithaa worked prolifically. She appeared in 140 films between 1961
and 1980, primarily in the Tamil, Telugu and Kannada languages. Jayalalithaa
received praise for her versatility as an actor and for her dancing skills,
earning the sobriquet "queen of Tamil cinema". Among her frequent
co-stars was M. G. Ramachandran, or MGR, a Tamil cultural icon who leveraged
his immense popularity with the masses into a successful political career. In
1982, when MGR was chief minister, Jayalalithaa joined the AIADMK, the party he
founded. Her political rise was rapid; within a few years she became AIADMK
propaganda secretary and was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of
India's Parliament. After MGR's death in 1987, Jayalalithaa proclaimed herself
his political heir and, having fought off the faction headed by Janaki Ramachandran,
MGR's widow, emerged as the sole leader of the AIADMK. Following the 1989
election, she became Leader of the Opposition to the DMK-led government headed
by Karunanidhi, her bête noire.
In 1991 Jayalalithaa became chief
minister, Tamil Nadu's youngest, for the first time. She earned a reputation
for a punishing work ethic and for centralising state power among a coterie of
bureaucrats; her council of ministers, whom she often shuffled around, were
largely ceremonial in nature. The successful cradle-baby scheme, which enabled
mothers to anonymously offer their newborns for adoption, emerged during this
time. Despite an official salary of only a rupee a month, Jayalalithaa indulged
in public displays of wealth, culminating in a lavish wedding for her foster
son in 1995. In the 1996 election, the AIADMK was nearly wiped out at the
hustings; Jayalalithaa herself lost her seat. The new Karunanidhi government
filed several corruption cases against her, and she had to spend time in jail.
Her fortunes revived in the 1998 general election, as the AIADMK became a key
component of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's 1998–99 government; her
withdrawal of support toppled it and triggered another general election just a
year later.
The AIADMK returned to power in
2001, although Jayalalithaa was personally disbarred from contesting due to the
corruption cases. Within a few months of her taking oath as chief minister, in
September 2001, she was disqualified from holding office and forced to cede the
chair to loyalist O. Panneerselvam. Upon her acquittal six months later,
Jayalalithaa returned as chief minister to complete her term. Noted for its
ruthlessness to political opponents, many of whom were arrested in midnight
raids, her government grew unpopular. Another period (2006–11) in the
opposition followed, before Jayalalithaa was sworn in as chief minister for the
fourth time after the AIADMK swept the 2011 assembly election. Her government
received attention for its extensive social-welfare agenda, which included several
subsidised "Amma"-branded goods such as canteens, bottled water and
salt. Three years into her tenure, she was convicted in a
disproportionate-assets case, rendering her disqualified to hold office. She
returned as chief minister after being acquitted in May 2015. In the 2016
assembly election, she became the first Tamil Nadu chief minister since MGR in
1984 to be voted back into office. That September, she fell severely ill and,
following 75 days of hospitalisation, died on 5 December 2016 due to cardiac
arrest.
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