The Shankar-directorial was released on the occasion of Diwali, 1999.

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Revisiting Mudhalvan: A trip down the memory lane with interesting trivia, working stills, unseen posters & paper ads

Team CE

Updated:6th Jan, 2021 at 3:29 PM

Here are some interesting trivia about its making...

Following the success of Jeans (1998), Shankar chose to make a political action film, which would later become Mudhalvan.

The idea for the story was inspired by Sivaji Ganesan being named as the honorary mayor of Niagara Falls, New York for one day during his visit to the United States.

The film's basic idea was also inspired from Nixon-Frost interviews which were broadcast in 1977.

The lead role of Pughazendhi was originally written with Superstar Rajinikanth in mind, but he was unwilling to star in the film, because of the controversial subject matter.

Thalapathy Vijay was then offered the role of the journalist, who becomes the CM for one day, but the actor subsequently turned down the offer, after initially agreeing to do it.

Shankar later revealed that he even approached Kamal Haasan for the film, but he was busy with the production of Hey Ram at that time.

Arjun, who had previously collaborated with Shankar in Gentleman (1993), was ultimately signed on as he was willing to offer bulk schedule dates for the film.

Shankar also noted that he was interested in casting Meena as Thenmozhi, but he opted against doing so as the actress was working with Arjun in another film in the same period, Rhythm (2000).

Whil early reports suggested that Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty has been cast in a small but significant role, it was later clarified to be untrue

Aishwarya Rai was then offered the role of Thenmozhi, but the actress was not able to do it because of date issues.

Laila, who had made her acting debut earlier in the year with Vijayakanth's Kallazhagar, was signed on to portray the role planned with Shilpa Shetty instead.

Originally, Laila's role was supposed to feature throughout the film, but Shankar shortened her character arc, owing to her call sheet problems.

Shankar later revealed that Raghuvaran was his first and only choice for the character of Chief Minister Aranganathar.

Renowned muralist Natanam (in his debut) and Kalairani were cast as Arjun's parents.

S. Sashikanth, who went on to produce films like Thamizh Padam (2010) and Kaaviya Thalaivan (2014), and K. R. Mathivaanan, who directed Aridhu Aridhu (2010), worked as assistant directors,

The song 'Mudhalvane' was shot at the Laxmi Niwas Palace in Bikaner, Rajasthan.

The film's cinematographer KV Anand later noted that the scenes involving the uproar shot on Anna Salai were among the hardest and most satisfying scenes he had worked on.

Stunt master Peter Hein revealed that he worked as a body double for Arjun in the scene where he had to run nude on the streets

The song 'Shakalaka Baby' was the last song to Mudhalvan Arjun be shot for the film, with reports suggesting that Sushmita Sen was paid a record amount to feature in a special appearance for the song.

The film's dialogues were written by Sujatha Rangarajan.

The song 'Shakalaka Baby' was re-edited by AR Rahman and featured on the hit international musical production Bombay Dreams, which ran in Europe and North America from 2002 to 2005.

A Mandarin Chinese remix of the 'Shakalaka Baby' track sung by Singaporean singer Kelly Poon was featured in her album In the Heart Of The World (2007).

Mudhalvan's soundtrack was a phenomenal success, and the initial day audio sale alone was more than three lakh units.

The song 'Azhagana Rakshasiye' is based on Rithigowla Raga.

The film, made at a huge budget of 20 crores, made 40 crores at the box-office.

The film went on to run for over one hundred days in cinemas with an event being held at Kamaraj Hall on 25 February 2000 to mark 100 days since release.

Mudhalvan was then dubbed and released in Telugu as Oke Okkadu and later remade in Hindi as Nayak starring Anil Kapoor.

DMK, which was the ruling party at that time, was upset with the film. In their view, Mudhalvan suggested that their rule was worse than that of AIADMK's.

Many DMK cadets felt that Raghuvaran, who played a venal chief minister and whose dialogue was delivered in a raspy voice, was taking off on the then CM, M Karunanidhi.

However, in AP, the reaction was the polar opposite. The film's protagonist was seen as a mirror image of the then CM Chandrababu Naidu.

The Andhra Chief Minister subsequently invited Shankar as his special guest, requested a special screening of the film, and lauded the ideals the director had expressed in his film.

Here are a few more stills, posters and newspaper ads from the film...

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