Just as the late J Jayalalithaa had to struggle a lot to reach the pinnacle of Tamil Nadu politics, the movie based on her life has also had to struggle for its release. Among the many Indian movie releases to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Kangana Ranaut-starrer Thalaivii is finally seeing the light of the day.
Thalaivii is going to release in Indian theatres on 10 September 2021, on the occasion of Vinayaka Chavithi. The movie’s trailer was released back in March 2021. There has been much excitement among the fans about this political biopic.
But before you watch this highly-anticipated movie, you should learn about all that has transpired in its making. Being a biopic and that too of a politician, the movie has been marred with its fair share of controversy. Questions were also raised on Kangana Ranaut’s casting as the late actor-politician.
Here are the 7 things you should know about Thalaivii before you watch it in the theatres:
#1 Launched on J Jayalalithaa’s birth anniversary
After Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016, a lot of filmmakers have shown interest in telling the story of the late politician. Already, a biopic web series titled Queen has been released back in 2019, with Ramya Krishnan portraying Jayalalithaa. The web series received rave reviews from the critics and was one of the most-viewed series on MX Player.
On 24 February 2018, producer Vishnu Vardhan Induri announced on the birth anniversary of Jayalalithaa that a multilingual biopic will be made on her life, with Kangana Ranaut essaying this role. AL Vijay was roped in to direct this big-budget movie. The title of the movie was later announced to be Thalaivii.
#2 A star-studded ensemble cast
Thalaivii is a typical Tamil multi-starrer with Kangana Ranaut in the lead. The movie also has Arvind Swami as MG Ramachandran, Nassar as Karunanidhi, Samuthirakani and Raj Arjun as RM Veerappan (in Tamil/Telugu and Hindi versions respectively), Madhoo as VN Janaki and Jisshu Sengupta as Sobhan Babu. Additionally, it has also been indicated that Indira Gandhi will feature in the movie, with Flora Jacob portraying the role.
#3 Written by KV Vijayendra Prasad
One of the main reasons to watch Thalaivii is that the movie’s script has been penned by the legendary KV Vijayendra Prasad, the writer of Baahubali movies, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and the yet-to-be-released RRR. The script has been reportedly shaped in such a way that it depicts the life of Jayalalithaa as a powerful woman in a largely male-dominated political world. The movie is expected to focus more on her political career and less on her time as a heroine.
#4 Kangana Ranaut’s preparations for this role
Kangana Ranaut had recently revealed that Thalaivii is the toughest role of her career. In this movie, she will be sporting 4 different looks of Jayalalithaa, covering her whole life. To add to that, the actress also had to gain 20 kg in her preparation for the role. Kangana Ranaut is known for diving deeply into every role she does. Thalaivii can be expected to be nothing less, probably the best movie of her career.
#5 Controversy
As is conventional with any biopic, this one also found itself muddled in controversy. The filmmakers had apparently taken permission for the biopic from Jayalalithaa’s nephew Deepak Jayakumar. Later, Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar approached the Madras High Court, claiming that the filmmakers didn’t take her permission. The prosthetics applied on Kangana’s face for the movie have also come under scrutiny and become the subject of heavy trolling on social media.
#6 Delays in release
Thalaivii has had its fair share of release date postponements. It was originally scheduled to release on 26 June 2020 but had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The filmmakers had then mulled a direct-to-OTT release but opted against it. Later, it was announced that the movie would release on 23 April 2021 but that release also had to be called off, due to the second wave of Covid-19 in India. Finally, as the number of cases has come down countrywide, Thalaivii is releasing on 10 September 2021, in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil languages.
#7 OTT premiere
While the movie was earlier considered to be released directly on an OTT platform, it didn’t pan out. But now, it is being reported that Thalaivii will be made available simultaneously on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video four weeks after its theatrical release. If these reports can be believed, this will be a rare instance where an Indian movie is released on both these OTT platforms.
Who’s excited for Thalaivii? Here’s the movie’s trailer:
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