Arvind Swamy shared this picture. (Image courtesy: thearvindswami)
Highlights
- Arvind Swami will play actor-turned-politician M G Ramachandran
- The film, titled Thalaivi, will go on floors after Diwali
- Arvind Swami will join Kangana on the sets of the film in November
The makers of the Jayalalithaa biopic, featuring Kangana Ranaut in the lead role, have reportedly roped in south star Arvind Swamy for the role of actor-turned-politician M G Ramachandran (aka MGR). News agency IANS cited a Bollywood Hungama report, which stated that Arvind Swamy, best remembered for his roles in Mani Ratnam's Roja and Bombay, will play the late Tamil superstar and former chief minister in the biopic, titled Thalaivi. "MGR and Jayalalithaa starred in 28 box office hits between 1965 and 1973. While the makers needed a worthy actor to do justice to his role, another criterion was the artiste had to be fluent in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu," a trade source close to the film told Bollywood Hungama, reported IANS.
"Arvind satisfied both criteria. The unit will kick off the shoot for Thalaivi with Kangana from the first week of November in Mysore and Arvind will join her on November 15," the source added.
Jayalalithaa's first film with MGR was BR Panthalu's Aayirathil Oruvan in 1965 and their last film together was Pattikaattu Ponnaiya in 1973. In between, they also co-starred in movies such as Adimai Penn (1969), Rahasya Police 115 (1968), Chandrodhayam (1966), Oli Vilakku (1968), Kadhal Vaganam (1968) and Kudiyiruntha Koyil (1968) to name a few.
Meanwhile, Thalaivi is a multilingual film scheduled to go on floors after Diwali. As of now, Kangana Ranaut is preparing for role and the actress' team regularly posts updates of her taking dance lessons and undergoing prosthetic preparation for the part.
Thalaivi is being directed by AL Vijay and it is produced by Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Shaailesh R.
Thalaivi is scheduled to release next year.
(With inputs from IANS)