Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut is on a biopic spree. After the success of her directorial debut Manikarnika, which was based on the life of the queen of Jhansi, she has announced her own biopic and will also be seen in a film on actor-turned-politician Jayalalithaa. Speaking about the film on Jayalalithaa titled Thalaivi, Kangana has claimed her own personality is the opposite of the late chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

In a press statement, Kangana said, “She was far more docile and refined in her demeanour, more sophisticated in her choice of words and always ladylike no matter what she was going through. But if you tried to run her down, she would always bounce back. She’s risen over every controversy and adversity and I could identify with that spirit though our styles of expression were very different.”

Talking about her interest in the story, Kangana told Mumbai Mirror, “They call me akka but I get mobbed more in my guru’s ashram in the US than when in Coimbatore. It’s a different world down South. Their own actors are mega stars and they hardly watch Hindi films, so apart from capital cities like Chennai or Hyderabad, I go largely unrecognised and can walk around freely.”

Sources close to the actor have informed us that Kangana had sessions with K V Vijayendra Prasad on her biopic, when he said he was writing another story like Kangana’s and she should consider coming onboard for that. That was how Kangana’s journey of Jayalalithaa biopic began. The biopic on the former chief minister is a bilingual, which is titled Jaya in Hindi and Thalaivi in Tamil.

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Talking about her conversation with the Manikarnika writer, Kangana said in a statement, “It presented an image of her that was contrary to the one I had in my mind, so I asked for some time to think over the film during that I read up some more on her and was blown away by what I learnt. It’s a story that needs to be told and I am happy to be telling it even though she was the absolute opposite of me.”

Kangana also disclosed that the Jayalalithaa biopic will start with Jayalalithaa as a child, cover her journey to emerging as one of the biggest stars and end with her becoming the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for the first time. “After that it would become a more political film and mean a shift in focus and genre,” Kangana told the tabloid.

Part of her preparation for the film, Kangana is taking lessons in Tamil language. She is also learning Bharatnatyam. Thalaivi will go on floors in October.

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First Published: Apr 01, 2019 11:25 IST