Arvind Swami will be essaying the role of late politician MG Ramachandran aka MGR in Kangana Ranaut-starrer Thalaivi.

Thalaivi, the official biopic of late CM of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa, was announced a year back and is finally taking shape. A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that Kangana Ranaut, who plays the titular role, went to the US to get prosthetic look test along with director AL Vijay and producer Brinda Prasad.

Now, the latest update is that actor Arvind Swami has been roped in to reprise legendary politician MG Ramachandran aka MGR in the biopic. A source told an entertainment portal, “The makers needed a worthy actor to do justice to his role, another criterion was that the artiste is fluent in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Arvind satisfied both criteria. The unit will kick off Thalaivi’s shoot with Kangana from the first week of November in Mysore, and Arvind will join her on November 15.”

Producer Vishnu Vardhan Induri was all praises for Arvind Swami and he called him a perfectionist. “We wanted someone who has a pan-India appeal and resembles MGR. Arvind and Kangana’s on-screen pair will be fresh. He took a lot of time to sign on the dotted line because he wanted to be sure that he could devote enough time to prep for the role,” he said.

J Jayalalithaa’s story would be incomplete without MGR as he was the one who groomed the actress into a politician. The pre-production work has been going on for about a year and the makers are all set to begin the work soon.

Director AL Vijay stated that he and his team had obtained permission from Deepak, nephew of J Jayalalithaa, and a NOC (No Objection Certificate) to make her biopic. Thalaivi is a trilingual flick, which will be made in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

source: indiatoday.in/movies