Not every filmmaker gets an opportunity to direct Rajinikanth, Tamil cinema’s idol, let alone in their third film.
When Tamil film Attakathi released to good reviews, everyone wondered who the new director was. With his second film, Madras, Pa Ranjith established himself as a storyteller given to raw and realistic portrayals. Even Rajinikanth himself called Ranjith up and praised his work.
It was one of those treasured moments, thought Ranjith, who then moved on with his life.
Radhika Apte and Rajinikanth in Kabali.
So it came as a surprise when Soundarya, Rajinikanth’s youngest daughter, called Ranjith up to say that her father wanted to work with him. He pitched two ideas to Rajinikanth — one, a gangster film set in Malaysia; the second was a supernatural thriller.
Rajinikanth preferred the first story. Ranjith started working on the script and Kabali got rolling.
Rajinikanth’s last two releases, Kochadiyaan and Lingaa, were box-office disasters. Nonetheless, fans and critics are anxiously awaiting the release of Kabali. The UAE is one of the first countries to screen the film, with shows starting just after 6pm on July 21.
“But this is not a regular cliched Rajinikanth film. There is a difference between the real Rajinikanth and his screen image,” says Ranjith. “I wanted to bring the real Rajinikanth into the story.”
Kabali is a story about the lives of Tamil plantation workers in Malaysia and it goes back to the 1990s. Rajinikanth plays Kabaleeswaran, who took up the cause of Tamilian workers being oppressed in a foreign land.
“It was while assisting Venkat Prabhu on the set of Goa that I first visited Malaysia,” says the director. “I found it so much like Tamil Nadu with its large Tamilian population. During my interactions with some of them I learnt about their problems in an alien country and how they were being oppressed as plantation workers. I met Tamilians who have been plantation workers for three generations.”
Rajinikanth will be seen in two looks: Firstly, the young Kabali, with Radhika Apte playing his wife; and the older Kabali who returns after spending time in jail. The canvas is large and includes a stellar cast such as Dinesh (of Attakathi fame, who did a phenomenal job in Visaranai), John Vijay, Kalaiyarasan (of Madras fame), Rithvika, Nasser, Dhansika and Kannada actor Kishore.
Noted Taiwanese actor Winston Chao plays the antagonist; award-winning Malaysian stage actor Rosyam Nor also has a major role.
Ranjith has retained the same technical crew that worked with him on Madras: Santosh Narayanan has composed and G. Murali is the cinematographer. The film was shot in Malaysia, Thailand, Chennai and Goa. The film, produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu, has also been dubbed into Hindi and Telugu.
tabloid! caught up with the stars of the film (the media-shy Rajinikanth excused himself) to hear about one of the most-awaited films of 2016.
John Vijay
A comic villain, right from his debut role in Oram Po as an auto rickshaw driver with a Thoothukudi Tamil accent, to his subsequent films, Vijay’s trademark quirkiness lingers in minds. In Kabali, he is Amir Md Hussain, Kabali’s advisor and close friend.
“Kabali went beyond my dreams,” he says. “When Ranjith mentioned that I will be sharing [the] screen with Rajinikanth, I thought I had heard wrong and asked him, ‘Can I know with whom I am sharing [the] screen?’ Ranjith’s answer, ‘Rajini sir, anna [brother],’ took me to a surreal world.”
The veteran actor has “an enthusiasm that never sags”.
Amir takes care of Kabali’s activities in his absence. “Playing Amir was not easy. Unlike me, Amir is a calm person and though there is a sarcasm in his talk, often bordering on humour, I had to restrain him from being loud.”
Dhansika
For the Paradesi actress, it was a dream come true.
Sharing the screen with Rajinikanth, Dhansika plays a sniper.
“I was initially nervous, but slowly got comfortable. Rajini sir’s compliments encouraged me further. There is an aura around the superstar and a style in everything he does.”
Kishore
The Kannada actor entered Tamil cinema with Polladhavan in 2007 as the villain and has mostly played characters with a bad side. Here, too, he is the bad guy — Veerashekharan, a gangster. “He is a cunning guy but this role is not just another villain. Being a Ranjith film, there are layers to the story and to my character. The only difficult part of this role was wearing lots of jewellery and clipping on a golden tooth.”
Acting in a film with Thalaivar (a pet name fans have for Rajinikanth) was a “cherished thing,” he says.
“Having watched his films since my college days, I could not believe that I would be acting with him. Watching him deliver his lines was a treat. But more than that his simplicity, his exuberance and his child-like zest after every shot left me astounded.”
Rithvika
Rithvika won the Filmfare Award for best supporting actress for her role in Tamil film Madras. But on the sets of Kabali she found herself tripping over her lines during the first two days of shooting. The excitement of working with Rajinikanth was just too much for her. Rithvika says: “I decided to forget for a while that I am with a superstar. I told myself that he is a co-actor and that worked over the next two days.”
Mum’s the word, when asked about her character. “I have been instructed not to reveal [anything]. The audience is in for a surprise.”
“Chinese actor Winston Chao who plays the antagonist initially confined himself to his caravan and only came out for his shots, but after noticing the superstar’s total involvement in every aspect of film making, he was soon in our midst.”
Stunt director twins Anbu and Arivu
After an impressive debut in Tamil cinema with Madras, the siblings choreographed stunt scenes for the superstar, who did not use a double.
“We were supposed to work with Ranjith on a Surya film but that was getting delayed. One day Ranjith called me up to say that we would be working with a big star soon. I asked him, ‘Isn’t that [the] Surya project?’,” says Arivu.
“When he mentioned that it was with someone bigger I asked him in jest, ‘Is it superstar then?’ And he replied, ‘How did you guess?’”
The next day, they met Rajinikanth. “We did not expect the superstar to know us and were taken aback when he complimented the realistically shot action sequences in Madras.”
“In Kabali, there is nothing artificial about the stunt sequences. They have been choreographed to fit into the mood of the scenes preceding it. We were wondering if at his age he would be able to deliver blows and jump from heights. He stunned us when, as the 65-year-old Kabali, he delivered blows with good force. Rajini sir’s energy and enthusiasm is awesome.
“Another scene required Rajini sir to drive his car at high speed and ram it into something and then reverse. We had arranged a dupe [double] for him. But he wanted to try it himself. We gave in with great apprehensions and that scene was canned exactly the way we had planned.”
