Kamal Haasan has been the only Indian actor whose films have been selected as India’s official entry to the Oscars the maximum times. One of his early films selected for the Oscars recently completed 35 years. It is the highly acclaimed Mani Ratnam film Nayagan, which also starred Saranya as the female lead. It was released on October 21, 1987.
It was way back in the mid-1980s when filmmaker Muktha Srinivasan approached leading star Sivaji Ganesan with a script inspired by the Hollywood classic The Godfather. Sivaji Ganesan also agreed to appear and it was decided in the initial talks that Kamal Haasan and Amala would act in supporting roles with Shivaji. As Kamal felt that there was no scope for him, the project was ultimately abandoned.
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Later both Muktha Srinivasan and Kamal Haasan approached Mani Ratnam to direct a remake of Vinod Khanna’s 1970 Bollywood film Achanak but Mani Ratnam was not interested in it. Instead, he chose to revive the initial Sivaji Ganesan project that did not materialise but with Kamal in the lead. He made tweaks to the script and made it resemble the life of Mumbai’s underworld don Varadarajan Mudaliar. Mani Ratnam personally met Varadarajan to plan for the film which ultimately became Nayagan.
When the film was ultimately made, Kamal chose to include some of Marlon Brando’s mannerisms from The Godfather and his performance was highly acclaimed, often hailed as one of the finest performances in Indian cinema. The focal point of the movie is Kamal, who portrays Velu Naicker, the voice of the residents of the Dharavi slums. Beginning with drug sales, Kamal gains influence and dominance in the region, and the locals overwhelmingly support him.
The movie was a massive blockbuster running for 214 days in Tamil Nadu. The film also ran for 100 days in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Nayagan ran for 25 weeks at Chennai Anand Theatre, 105 days at Grelan, 105 days at Udayam, 175 days at Madurai Minipriya, 100 days at Salem, 85 days at Trichy Kalaiyarangam, 100 days at Jupiter, 105 days at Coimbatore Archana, 100 days at Bombay Dinora and 224 at Bangalore Pallavi. Nayagan was dubbed Nayakadu in Telugu and ran for 100 days.
In a poetic coincidence, Vinod Khanna, whose film Kamal wanted to remake, himself played the lead role in the Hindi remake of Nayagan, titled Dayavan and directed by Feroze Khan.
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