South actor Arvind Swamy, best known for his roles in Mani Ratnam’s Roja and Bombay, has been cast as actor and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MG Ramachandran in Thalaivi, the upcoming biopic on the late Jayalalithaa in which Kangana Ranaut has been cast in the lead role. The film is being directed by AL Vijay.
Online portal Bollywood Hungama has quoted a source as saying, “While the makers needed a worthy actor to do justice to his role, another criterion was the artiste had to be fluent in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. Arvind satisfied both criteria.” The film will reportedly go on floors by the first week of November and Arvind is expected to begin shooting with Kangana from 15 November.
Jayalalithaa and MGR starred in several films together between 1965 and 1973, including Aayirathil Oruvan, Adimai Penn, Oli Vilakku and Kadhal Vaganam. Their last film together was Pattikaattu Ponnaiya in 1973.
Kangana has been busy preparing for her role. She recently made a trip to the US to test the prosthetics she will require to look the part. Hollywood expert Jason Collins, who has worked on films like Captain Marvel and Blade Runner has been working with Kangana to perfect her look as Jayalalithaa.
Thalaivi has been written by KV Vijayendra Prasad, who has also penned Baahubali and Manikarnika, and will be produced by Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Shaailesh R Singh. It is scheduled to release in 2020.
(With inputs from IANS)
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