Kangana Ranaut who was last seen on screen playing Rani Laxmi Bai in Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, will next be playing late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in the upcoming multilingual biopic Thalaivi.
Film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh also took to Twitter to announce the news.
#BigNews: Kangana Ranaut to play Jayalalithaa… Biopic will be made in two languages. Titled #Thalaivi in Tamil and #Jaya in Hindi… Directed by AL Vijay… Written by KV Vijayendra Prasad [#Baahubali and #Manikarnika]… Produced by Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Shaailesh R Singh.
— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) March 23, 2019
The film which was announced on the occasion of Jayalalithaa’s 71st birth anniversary in February will be directed by Vijay.
“When producer Vishnu Induri approached me with an offer to direct this biopic, I felt a sense of responsibility more than excitement. This was a story of an achiever; a story of one woman who fought for her place in a male-dominated world. It was meant to be told with honesty. The stature of this tall leader and her courage inspired me to say yes as soon as I was offered this opportunity,” Vijay told IANS.
The film will be written by KV Vijayendra Prasad, who had also written Baahubali, Bajrangi Bhaijan and Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi.
Interestingly, another Jayalalithaa biopic titled “The Iron Lady” is also in the offing. This project is gearing up for a 2020 release.
Nithya Menen plays Jayalalithaa in “The Iron Lady”, being directed by A Priyadarshini. The film will be released in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.
Vijay said “Thalaivi” will be the official biopic on the life of Jayalalithaa. He also said the team had permission from the late leader’s nephew Deepak.
“I thank Deepak sir for granting us the official status. We are in the process of finalising the rest of the cast and crew. We start shooting from April,” he added.
GV Prakash Kumar will compose music for the film which will be produced by Vishnu Induri and will start rolling from April.