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Dedication is something a few Bollywood actors today need a heavy dose of to justify the kind of subjects they’re choosing without really dedicating themselves to it. Kamal Haasan, in all ways, could be a master class of acting for these actors. Today, we’re going to talk about one of the many such incidents when ‘Ulaganayagan’ went so deep into performing a scene that he forgot he’s an actor after all.
Marudhanayagam, for those who are unaware, we recently did an extensive article on how Prabhas’ 600 Crore Kalki 2898 AD would not have been the costliest Indian film if Kamal Haasan’s 1000 Crore Marudhanayagam could’ve lived. Read that to get a glimpse of what’s going to come next.
For those who don’t want all the details, let us tell about an unimaginable project known as Marudhanayagam, a 1000 crore (inflation-adjusted) dream that was envisioned by Kamal Haasan back in 1991, an epic drama inspired by the life of 18th-century freedom fighter Maruthanayagam Pillai. A film that became too big to exist.
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Haasan spent crores just to shoot a scene to play it out for Queen Elizabeth II on her trip to Chennai, and she was stunned by what she saw. To attain perfection in every department, KH assembled the best of the best cast & crew from all around the world with the vision of putting Indian cinema up on the map for the world to acknowledge.
When we say around the world, we mean it because Titanic lead Kate Winslet was offered the female role of Marsha. Not just that, Rajinikanth was approached to portray the Maratha ruler, Pratap Singh of Thanjavur, and Amitabh Bachchan was roped in to play the guest role as well. Can you imagine this cast in any Indian film, even today? Even three decades later, do you think we’re ready for such a monumental project?
Okay, if you’ve read this article till here, you deserve the unique trivia that gave birth to this writing piece; the ‘dedication’ which we started this article with is what makes this film craved for as much as it is even after multiple failed attempts through the span of 30+ years.
In 1991, films didn’t get Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies (or any major VFX player) to master the VFX, CGI cleaning up the film digitally as much as possible. For an important scene, Kamal Haasan & team needed an Eagle to eat the human flesh out of his character. But, due to a lack of believable VFX, KH decided to lie down injured, probably hiding some Chicken under the prosthetic makeup on his leg.
He kept lying on the ground pretending to be dead till a real Eagle didn’t fly down to eat the flesh, and that scene was shot with the real wild bird without any VFX. Isn’t this Mind a blown fact? Just like many, even we’re the ones who want Kamal Haasan to revive Marudhanayagam, and the news of him bringing it back with Chiyaan Vikram couldn’t get any better?
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