Biopic on Jayalalithaa to roll out next year

The biopic of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, The Iron Lady —a story of a revolutionary leader, will go on the floor on February 24, 2019, which marks the 71st birth anniversary of the late leader.

The lead role will be played by Malayalam actress Nithya Menen and Varalakshmi Sarath Kumar, daughter of popular Tamil actor Sarath Kumar, has also been roped in for the film.

There is mounting speculation mounting that Varalakshmi will play the role of Jayalalithaa’s long-time aide V K Sasikala, currently serving four-year jail term in Bengaluru.

The film to be directed by A Priyadhaarshini, who worked with critically-acclaimed director Mysskin, is the first biopic of Jayalalithaa to be announced with the lead actor and title poster, though at least two other projects were publicised, but have not moved any further.

The Iron Lady is also the title of 2011 British-French film on the life of Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female and longest-serving prime minister.

Jayalalithaa, the charismatic five-time chief minister of Tamil Nadu who ruled the Tamil film world and political arena alike for decades together, died on December 5, 2016 at Apollo Hospitals.

The poster of the film was released on Thursday evening by veteran Tamil filmmaker A R Murugadoss.

“Nithya Menen will play the lead role of the movie and rest of the cast is yet to be decided. Though Varalakshmi has agreed to part of the movie, her role is yet to be decided. I have two roles for her and let’s see which one she fits into,” Priyadhaarshini told DH.

She said the biopic will bring alive Jayalalithaa’s life from her childhood in Karnataka and her astounding career in the film industry to establishing herself as an indispensable leader of Tamil Nadu.

“The idea is to direct a film that allows the next generation to know about Jayalalithaa and the biopic will have both positives and negatives of the late leader. We never saw Mahatma Gandhi, but the film Gandhi gave us an idea of the personality and my aim is to come out with a film like that,” Priyadhaarshini said.