Kangana Ranaut to learn Tamil for Jayalalithaa biopic

Kangana Ranaut’s ambitious Jayalalithaa bilingual biopic Jaya / Thalaivi will go on the floor in September. The star is currently busy with Ekta Kapoor’s Mental Hai Kya and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwary’s Panga, post which she will start shooting for the biopic based on the life of the megastar-turned-politician, J Jayalalithaa. However, even though the actress will begin the shoot only in September, her prep for the role as one of the most powerful political figures of India has already begun. We have learnt that the actress is already working towards perfecting her role, by starting to learn Tamil. This is to help her understand the late Tamil Nadu CM and essay the role more convincingly in the Vijay directorial.

Kangana Ranaut says, “I will learn Tamil to understand the character better and feel closer to Jayalalithaa.” Talking about her preparation for the impactful role, Kangana adds, “The scenes will be in Tamil, and I will learn the language to understand the character better and feel closer to her. I will begin my language classes once I honour my commitments to Panga and Mental Hai Kya.” Interestingly, the film not only marks a Bollywood star headlining a mega-film in the South, but as per reports, the film will also catapult the Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi actor’s status as the highest-paid actress in the industry with her remuneration fee said to be Rs 24 crores for this film.

Kangana also reveals that she was drawn to the script as she felt Jayalalithaa’s personality is a lot like her own. The star adds, “I see parallels with my own journey in hers, but her success story is much bigger than mine. In the first narration itself, I could see myself doing the part because it came naturally to me. I could have gone ahead with my own biopic, but this was much more enticing.”

Talking about her foray into regional cinema, the actress says that they have always attracted her. The biopics are not Kangana’s first foray into South, but she admits, she is rather excited about the film. “Regional films have always interested me. When we go there to promote our films, we realise they have a thriving industry of their own and there is a major lack of connect with that audience as a Hindi film actor. I was looking for the right script to come my way and when it did, I lapped it up,” she says.