At the movies

`Kangana can carry off Jayalalithaa’s role’

The proposed film on the life of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, in which actor Kangana Ranaut is to play the title role, has generated enough buzz even before the story has been written. KV Vijayendra Prasad of `Baahubali’, `Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ and `Manikarnika’ fame will write the story for the bilingual, which will be titled `Thalaivi’ in Tamil and `Jaya’ in Hindi. 


“I have been approached by the producers to write the story for the film on Jayalalithaa,” Vijayendra Prasad told UmaSudhir.com. “I will take about a couple of months to finish the writing.”

Courtesy : Team Kangana Ranaut / Twitter


Prasad who has written for all his son SS Rajamouli’s films, plans to meet people who have known Jayalalithaa closely, both as a film actor and as a politician, as part of his research for inputs.

“I will not distort history but it will be a dramatic presentation of events,” says Prasad.


Prasad says he has heard about actor Nithya Menen playing Jayalalithaa in a movie titled `The Iron Lady’. Its title logo was released by director AR Murugadoss in September last year. Gautam Menon too is working on a web series on the six-time chief minister of Tamil Nadu, with actor Ramya Krishna playing the title role. 


Kangana had gone on record stating she was working on her own biopic when the Jayalalithaa film was pitched to her.


“I was working on my own biopic but her (Jayalalithaa) story is very similar to my story. In fact, it is a bigger success story than mine. When I heard the narration of this film, I found many similarities between both the stories. So when I had the option to do a film based on her story or my story, I decided on the former,” said Kangana. 


Prasad does not think Kangana not being a south Indian will impact how she performs as Jayalalithaa.


“She is a wonderful artiste. She is capable of carrying it off,” says Prasad. 


Aishwarya Rai had played Kalpana, a fictitious character inspired by Jayalalithaa, in Mani Ratnam’s `Iruvar’ in 1997. Will that portrayal be a benchmark, I ask.


“No, not necessarily. That was more a story about two friends who fall apart,” says Prasad. `Iruvar’ was based on the life and times of MG Ramachandran and M Karunanidhi. 


Unlike `NTR’, the biopic of NT Rama Rao, that was made in two parts, one detailing the thespian as a film legend and the second focusing on his political innings, Prasad is aiming at telling Jayalalithaa’s entire life story in one film.

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