A biopic on the life of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar is being made in Tamil titled Baba Saheb with director Ajay Kumar helming it. Apparently, he has also taken the onus of producing the movie as well. Ajay tells us, “Every alternate movie in K’town is on rowdies and gangsters. I wanted to deviate from this commercial cocktail and try out my hand in filming a biopic of a national leader.”
He asserts, “The film will focus on the lifetime of the social reformer and will not be projecting him as the caste leader.” Talking about how he zeroed in on Raja Ganapathy for the titular role, he says, “It was not an easy task. I auditioned nearly 10,000 candidates, and finally my cinematographer Mohan introduced Raja Ganapathy who had worked in a film called Aaivu Koodam. I felt he had an uncanny resemblance to Dr Ambedkar and with few makeup techniques, we could bring the former alive on screen.” The team is also looking out for faces to play poet Bharathi, EVR Periyar and other leaders, he adds. After a gap, ace composer Deva has been roped in for music.
One may recall that M’town superstar Mammmooty portrayed Dr Ambedkar in the English film Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and even won a national award for Best Actor, besides the movie winning Best Feature Film in English.
