Director AL Vijay is well known in Tamil film industry for having directed movies like Deiva Thirumagal and Madarasapattinam. His recent outing at the theatres was the Tamil – Telugu bilingual Devi 2 / Abhinetri, which had Prabhu Deva, Tamannaah and Nandita Swetha, in the lead roles with Dimple Hayati, Kovai Sarala, RJ Balaji, and Saptagiri in supporting roles.

Following its release, Vijay has moved over to his next project, which is the biopic on the late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa. Titled Thalaivi, the film will have Bollywood star Kangna Ranaut in the lead.

Speaking about this film, Vijay has said in an interview published in in.com, “For the next 1 year and a half, I’ll be occupied with Thalaivi. It will portray the life of a strong woman who comes up and makes a mark in a male-dominated society. Kangana is putting on weight to suit the part, she is also taking up Tamil classes and Bharatanatyam lessons. The film will be starting from Jayalalithaa madam’s 16th year. We’ll be bringing in makeup specialists from the USA to work on Kangana’s look. We’ll be starting the shoot of the film in July end. The actors to play the other key characters such as MGR and Sasikala haven’t been confirmed yet. The opportunity to work with ace writer Vijayendra Prasad is proving to be quite enriching for me.”

Interestingly, there are other biopics on Jayalalithaa in the making as well. Some time ago, the late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa’s close friend Sasikala’s nephew Jeyanandh Dhivakaran announced that director N Lingusamy will be directing a biopic on the late leader.

Debut director Priyadarshini too had revealed the title logo of her upcoming film. Nithya Menen has been roped in to play the leader onscreen. Aptly titled as The Iron Lady, the film will concentrate on J Jayalalitha’s political journey and the challenges she underwent during her tenures as the CM.

(Content provided by digital Native)