Filmmaker Vijay, is currently shooting for the biopic on the life of actor-politician J. Jayalalithaa titled Thalaivi starring Kangana Ranaut in the titular role. The makers have roped in actor Arvind Swami to play the role of former Tamil Nadu CM and legendary star MGR, who played an important part in the political career of Jayalalithaa.
To coincide with MGR's birth anniversary on Friday, Arvind Swami took to twitter and shared his look from the upcoming biopic following which a teaser featuring MGR's song Naan Ungal Veetu Pillai from the 1968 Tamil film Pudhiya Boomi, with Arvind Swami's performance was unveiled. The award-winning makeup artist Pattanam Rasheed is the man behind Arvind's look.
Thank you for the phenomenal response. On behalf of the entire team, I thank you for your acceptance . A special mention to Mr. Pattanam Rashid for the make up, Mr. Nagendra Prasad for the choreography and Ms. Neeta Lulla for the costumes. pic.twitter.com/NaIYArwwhv
— arvind swami (@thearvindswami) January 17, 2020
Talking to Times of India, the film's director Vijay said, “Arvind is a perfectionist and he doesn’t stop until he gets everything perfectly right. He watched lots of old films and footage of MGR and attended several workshops to get the body language and mannerisms right. He even visited a dentist to make sure his teeth look similar to MGR’s. But we were clear that we didn’t want him to look like a clone of MGR. Arvind worked closely with our make-up man Pattanam Rasheed. He tried eight looks before finally cracking the look we were all satisfied with.”
Previously, makers had released Kangana Ranaut's first look as Jayalalithaa, featuring her with thick prosthetic makeup on her face, perfecting Jayalalithaa's 'victory sign' and her signature soft smile. Her looks had received mixed reactions as the prosthetic work made some people say that the actor looked like a caricatured version of the ex-CM.
There are already reports doing the rounds that actors such as Jagapathi Babu, Jayasudha and Sathyaraj will be playing crucial roles, while the makers are yet to announce the rest of the cast and crew. It is reported that Kangana has taken a hefty amount of Rs 20 crore for this film being made in three languages i.e. Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. The actor has gone skin deep for her character and also got trained in classical Indian dance form Bharatnatyam.
The film is written by KV Vijayendra Prasad, who has also penned Baahubali and Manikarnika, and will be produced by Vishnu Vardhan Induri & Shaailesh R Singh under the banners of Vibri & Karma Media and Entertainment. Hollywood makeup artist Jason Collins who has worked in Captain Marvel, Hunger Games and Blade Runner, is in charge of the prosthetic makeup. GV Prakash has been roped in to compose music, while Nirav Shah will crank the camera.
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