I want to believe that Amma has chosen me to play her, says Kangana Ranaut

Kangana Ranaut, who is looking forward to the release of Thalaivii, a biopic of the late Tamil Nadu chief minister and legendary actress J Jayalalithaa, has revealed in an interview how an incident on the sets of the movie bears an uncanny resemblance with her own life. 

Directed by AL Vijay, the film also stars Arvind Swami as MG Ramachandran. 

As part of the promotions of the movie, Ranaut said, “It is actually uncanny that when we were shooting these scenes when Jaya Amma was assaulted in the assembly, Shiv Sena was breaking my house. It was happening exactly around the same time. I was on the set and shooting these scenes this drama was going on in Mumbai. I felt like real and reel life are clashing into each other (sic).”

On March 25, 1989, Jayalalithaa, the leader of opposition and the first woman in the state to ever occupy that post, was assaulted in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly. In that incident, Jayalalithaa’s saree was torn, but it is still not known if it was done deliberately. 

Ranaut added that she felt Jayalalithaa chose her to be part of this project. “I think somewhere I do want to believe that Jaya Amma has chosen me to play her role because somewhere she sees me as a strong woman,” she said, adding that she’s also a powerful woman like Jayalalithaa and quite stubborn. 

Kangana, who was last seen in the sports drama Panga, spent close to six months prepping for this project. She took Bharatanatyam classes, learnt Tamil and even spent hours in prosthetic make-up sessions.

When Ranaut was announced as the lead, the decision was met with some backlash.

Soon after the announcement, Vijay clarified his stance on roping in Ranaut in an interview with the Times of India newspaper.

“This is a pan-India film, and Kangana is apt for the role. She is one of the biggest stars in India today and I think it is right that a top star plays the role of an important politician. This way, the story will also reach audiences across India. We consider this a pan-Indian film, not a regional one,” the filmmaker said.