MS who played the title role in ‘Meera’
‘Soorarai Pottru’ (2020) was inspired by Captain G R Gopinath’s budget-airline story. ‘ Amaran ’ (2024) based on Major Mukund Varadarajan’s life, became a major box-office success by pairing a soldier’s story with a human family drama. Gowri Ramnarayan, who grew up in the legendary musician MS’s household and travelled with her as a vocalist for 17 years, believes presenting such a layered life, especially through mainstream cinema, poses risks that need to be taken seriously. Director Vijay, whose 2021 biopic ‘Thalaivii’ traced the journey of J Jayalalithaa , believes that recreating celebrated personalities on screen goes beyond merely getting their appearance right — it is about capturing their aura. The controversy around ‘800’, the Muttiah Muralitharan film, which saw its original lead Vijay Sethupathi step away amid protests, showed how casting itself can become a political question.
Because it put the victims at the centre, not the lawyer, ‘Jai Bhim’ (2021) drew on a historic case involving custodial violence, argued by a lawyer who later became a high court judge, and it worked.
Evolving that crucial element would be daunting,” says Ramnarayan. The real challenge is in deciding what to retain, what to drop and, most importantly, how to recreate their aura on screen,” says Vijay. At the same time, we took certain liberties while portraying his association with personalities such as M R Radha and N S Krishnan,” he says.
Audiences have long treated the screen as a public square. Here politicians have become film stars, while matinee idols have embraced politics. So when Kollywood turns to real life, it is dealing with subject matter familiar to the audience. Recent hits show what works. But it was rebuilt around a fictional hero and invented characters, so the film could chase emotion rather than accuracy. “MS was a classical carnatic musician. Her story must be presented – not merely as a visual but as an auditory experience. Kollywood’s star system is an advantage here. A leading man or woman brings a following, and when the casting suits the role, the performance becomes part of the film’s identity. “Making a film on personalities who left an indelible mark is challenging. We know about MGR, Jayalalithaa and their stories. For Vijay, that familiarity makes a biopic particularly demanding. The filmmaker is not introducing a new character but attempting to breathe life into someone whose mannerisms, appearance and public persona remain etched in collective memory. For director Krishnakumar Ramakumar, bringing G D Naidu’s life to the big screen as a biopic meant walking the line between historical accuracy and creative liberty. “Biopics come with their own set of challenges, while offering moments to cherish. After the film’s release, several people from Coimbatore pointed out to me that Naidu shared a close kinship with Periyar, which was only alluded to in the film. For the filmmaker, the experience reinforced what makes the biopic a particularly demanding genre: not merely recreating a celebrated life, but to distil its vastness into a compelling cinematic narrative without losing the essence of the person. In Tamil Nadu, a life story is rarely neutral. Films about political figures, or about people tied to caste, language or regional pride, face pressure from families, parties and fan clubs. Legal challenges and calls for cuts are a familiar part of the release cycle. That the biopic reached beyond India came as a pleasant surprise. It did remarkably well internationally, including in Pakistan and several other countries. It was satisfying to see the film find its audience despite being sandwiched between big-ticket releases such as ‘Jana Nayagan’ and ‘Spider-Man’ – Krishnakumar Ramakumar, Director, G D Naidu