AL Vijay, the director of the upcoming Jayalalithaa biopic Thalaivi, has denied the reports about his lead actress Kangana Ranaut being paid Rs. 24 crores for the project.
According to DC, the amount was the highest an Indian actress would have received for an Indian movie.
“Kangana is being paid Rs. 24 crore for the bilingual project. The makers seem certain that her star power will help the movie reach a pan-Indian audience, and the producers have already signed a contract with her,” a source was quoted in the report.
The same report quoted a different source, allegedly close to the actress, who said that she was being paid Rs.12 crores and ‘a percentage from the budget.’ The report went so far as to state that the makers had already signed a contract with the Manikarnika actress.
Talking to Silverscreen, AL Vijay refuted the rumours. “The news is fake,” said the Deivathirumagal director.
Silverscreen also reached out to producer Vishnu Vardhan Induri for comments but he was unavailable. We will update the story as and when we get further information.
AL Vijay’s Thalaivi was granted the status of an ‘official biopic’ last month after the makers received a No Objection Certificate from Jayalalithaa’s nephew Deepak Jayakumar. The writing for the movie will be overseen by the Baahubali writer K Vijayendra Prasad, who had also written Ranaut’s previous film Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi. Apparently, it was the writer who suggested the two-time National Award-winning actress’ name to the makers.
Thalaivi will have G.V. Prakash as the music composer and Nirav Shah as the cinematographer. Madhan Karky serves as the lyricist on the project. The movie will be produced by Vishnu Vardhan Induri. The movie is likely to go on floors in July.
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Almost four versions of Jayalaitha’s biopics are in the works, the latest one being Gautham Vasudev Menon’s – a web-series. Ramya Krishnan will play the role of Jayalalithaa while Indrajith Sukumaran essays MGR in the show. Viji Chandrashekar is slated to play the role of Sasikala.
Director Priyadarshini has already announced The Iron Lady, with Nithya Menon playing the titular role.
Also, Bharathiraja and Lingusamy had earlier announced biopics on the late Chief Minister, and Adithya Bharadwaj and Dasari Narayana Rao suggested they may be directing films on Jayalalithaa’s life, but the status of those projects is unknown.