National Award winning actress Kangana Ranaut is leaving no stone unturned for her upcoming role in Thalaivi, a biopic on the life of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, the late J. Jayalalithaa.
“Though prosthetic makeup was considered, Kangana Ranaut was keen to add on a few kilos to essay the role,” reveals director Vijay, who adds, “We have also appointed a Tamil teacher for her to learn the language. The story begins from Jaya madam’s first film in Kannada — Chinnada Kombe — when she was just 16. Further, it will focus on how she reigned supreme in a male-dominated world. Her knowledge, wisdom and intelligence was incomparable, which made her the Iron Lady that she was. That was my main inspiration to make a biopic on her.”
Vijay reveals that Kangana was the entire team’s first choice to portray the late Chief Minister. “Names like Vidya Balan and Aishwarya Rai were also considered, but Kangana was everybody’s choice,” he states.
The Devi director admits that it has been a blessing to work with a legend like Vijayendra Prasad, who also wrote the screenplay of Kangana’s earlier film Manikarnika. “It gives me immense happiness to work under Vijayendra Prasad’s supervision for Thalaivi,” says Vijay.
Apparently, special makeup artists from Hollywood will be flown in for Kangana’s look in the film. Set to be made in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, Vijay also discloses that Kangana has allocated the next 1 1/2 years of her call sheet to the biopic.
