In the mid-1980s, Muktha Srinivasan narrated a story inspired by The Godfather to Sivaji Ganesan, who agreed to act in the film. Amala and Kamal Haasan were also confirmed to act.
However Ananthu, then an associate of Haasan, felt that it would be a Ganesan-focused film and not a Haasan film. The project was eventually dropped.
Kamal later told Muktha Srinivasan about the-then upcoming director Mani Ratnam, who had wanted to cast Haasan as the protagonist in his directorial debut, Pallavi Anu Pallavi (1983).
Srinivasan came to Mani's house and gave him a cassette of Pagla Kahin Ka (1970). Ratnam, after watching the film, rejected the remake offer, citing that it was not his cup of tea.
Mani instead suggested two scripts: one was on the lines of Dirty Harry (1971) and Beverly Hills Cop (1984), while the other was based on the life of underworld don Varadarajan Mudaliar.
Kamal decided to make the latter film first as he was very much impressed with the plot, which spanned many timelines. The film was titled Nayakan (Hero).
Ratnam had earlier narrated this story, when it was only an idea, to producer R. C. Prakash, a couple of years back, but it was not picked up then.
Mani wanted Kamal to have as realistic a look as possible. He preferred Haasan in traditional Hindu attire, as opposed to the usual, bearded, and suited gangsters.
Kamal was initially hesitant regarding his look and wanted to sport a beard similar to that of his old-aged look in Sagara Sangamam (1983).
Kamal also felt that a lush beard will conceal his jaw line, which would reveal that the character is being portrayed by a younger person.
Mani Ratnam, however, didn't want Kamal to sport a look similar to Sagara Sangamam or any of his aged characters in his previous films.
Finally, after consulting many talented make-up artists, Kamal agreed to sport dentures to provide some weight around his jaw for Velu Nayakan's old-age look.
Neela, the wife of Velu Nayakan, was created by Muktha Srinivasan as he felt that without the character, the film would have had more violent content and and that it would not cater to family audience
Mani wanted a 'new face' to portray Neela as he felt the character would have the required zest and gusto if it was done by a newbie.
Debashree Roy, the famous Bengali actor who played the lead in Manaivi Ready, claimed that she was approached to play Neela, but she refused thinking that speaking in Tamil would be difficult for her.
Saranya sent her photograph to Mani to audition for the role. She was later added to the cast after a successful screen test. According to Mani, she was the only person who auditioned for the role.
Saranya's father was apparently against her taking up acting, but she and her mother managed to convince him.
Nassar was suggested to Mani by Kamal, when Raghuvaran was being considered for the role of Charumati's husband by the team.
Actress Tara, who was busy doing Kannada and Telugu films at the time made an extended cameo appearance as Shakila.
Tinu Anand, known for his roles in the Dabangg series and the recently-released Saaho, plays the son of the police officer, who shoots Velu in the end, to avenge his father's murder.
Mani initially planned to complete the film in 60 days and 70 rolls of film. Kamal was paid 1.75 million and the initial budget for the film was 6 million, in 1987.
But soon, time and cost overruns increased the film's budget to beyond 10 million.
The first shedule of the film, which started in Nov 1886, lasted for 10 days, but the scenes shot during this period were scrapped, as Kamal wasn't satisfied with them, prompting script rewrites.
Mani later revealed that a 3-day test shoot was conducted after the 1st schedule, unbeknownst to Srinivasan, as the script for the film was being rewritten at that time.
The test shoots featured Kamal in his many get-ups, but they did not make it to the final cut of the film. The test shoots, however, helped to get the technical aspects on track.
According to Mani, the first 'real schedule' of Nayakan began in January 1987. 15 days of shooting took place in the slum areas of Dharavi.
Thota Tharani created a Dharavi set at Venus Studios, Chennai using photographs as reference. Thousands of junior artists were hired to recreate the slum atmosphere. Also, pigeons were brought.
Kamal helped in the make-up for the other actors in the sets, and asked Janagaraj and Delhi Ganesh to cut their hair so as to make their characters in their old age scenes look convincing.
Kamal also brought his own gun to the shoot, sparing Mani the usage of a dummy, as they were operating on a tight budget.
In the scene where Kamal chases the inspector, the actor uses his own bottle of sugar glass, which he had brought from the United States.
Mani had marked around 1.2 million for the film's action sequences. To make the sequences slick, stunt sequence director Jim Allen, who was known for his work in Sholay (1975) was chosen.
But after three days, he was removed from the film as he charged 200,000 per day, and Srinivasan could not afford the money.
The remaining portions were shot at Bombay (now Mumbai), including the portions involving Velu Nayakan's childhood life in the city.
The scene featuring Neela studying for her mathematics exams was suggested by Srinivasan.
Velu's childhood portions before he moves to Bombay were canned in the OMR in one and a half days. This was also the last part of the principal photography.
The song 'Naan Sirithal Deepavali' was shot at the spot where the Taj Club House is located today. The old building previously located at that spot was called the 'Indian Express Building'.
Thota Tharani converted the building's exterior into a brothel and used the opposite end of the building for Velu's house location.[
Nayakan was notable for its frame-within-the-frame technique of filmmaking, which was suggested to Mani by PC Sreeram.
Kamal and Mani met Varadaraja Mudaliar in person, and it was Mudaliar who suggested to Ratnam that Velu Nayakan should die in the end.
When the film was completed and the first print was ready, it ran for three hours. Mani and Kamal wanted Srinivasan to release the film uncut.
Srinivasan, who felt audiences would never see the entire film due to its length, requested the film's editor B. Lenin to remove the scenes which he felt were unnecessary.
The result, according to Srinivasan, 'gave life to the movie, along with the theme music, Thenpandi seemayilae.
Although Kamal has acknowledged Nayakan being inspired by The Godfather, Ratnam has denied this, stating, 'It's easy to classify films in simple categories. There's no similarity to The Godfather.'
Apart from The Godfather, producer Muktha Srinivasan cited Once Upon a Time in America (1984) as another influence on Nayakan.
According to film historian Theodore Baskaran, Nayakan 'tends to glorify violence and portrays the anti-social, smuggler-king in an approving and sympathetic way, modelling him on Robin Hood.
Nayakan is Ilaiyaraaja's 400th film. Pulamaipithan wrote the lyrics for all the songs except 'Nila Adhu Vanathumele', which Ilaiyaraaja himself wrote.
During the beginning credits, Thenpandi Cheemayile has the colloquial line 'yaar adichaaro'(sung by Raja), but when it plays later, it's altered to the more polished 'yaar adithaaro' (Kamal's version)
Because the song was going to be repeated throughout the film, Raja also wanted a more orchestral version, and in this version sung by Kamal, the language eventually became more sophisticated.
Nayakan was dubbed in Telugu under the title Nayakudu. It was also remade in Hindi as Dayavan in 1988. A Hindi dub of the film was released in 1999 as Velu Nayakan.
For the Hindi dub, composer duo Deepak-Santosh were approached to replace two numbers. The song 'Chaha Humne Tujhe' served as a replacement for 'Nee Oru Kaadhal' from the Tamil original.
However, 'Nee Oru Kaadhal' was dubbed in Hindi as 'Jeevan Ka Sangeet' and was included in the version's soundtrack. 'Sitam Ki Andhi Se' is another song that replaced 'Thenpaandi Cheemayile'.
The Censor Board at Chennai initially refused to permit the release of Nayakan, as it was based on a living person.
When Srinivasan appealed to the revising committee at Bombay, they said that they would permit the release of the film he produced a letter stating that it was not based on Mudaliar's life.
Through writer Mathiolli Shanmugam, Srinivasan met Mudaliar, who gave him a letter, after which the censor appellate board at Bombay permitted the release of the film.
Despite facing competition from Rajinikanth's Manithan, Nayakan became a commercial success, running for over 175 days in theatres and thereby becoming a silver jubilee film.
At the 1987 National Film Awards, Nayakan won the awards for Best Actor (Kamal Haasan), Best Cinematography (P. C. Sriram) and Best Art Direction (Thotta Tharani).
Nayakan was India's official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1988 at the 60th Academy Awards; however, it was not shortlisted among the final nominees.
In 2005, the magazine TIME included Nayakan in its list of 'All-Time 100 Best Films'. The tagline given to the film by TIME was 'A terrific gangster epic in the Godfather style.
Nayakan was also ranked 13th in The Moving Arts Film Journal list of greatest films of all time.
When asked if he would make a sequel to Nayakan, Ratnam said, 'Never. When you finish a film, you're glad to be rid of it. You're happy you don't have to go back to that again. Been there, done that.'
The scenes from Nayagan have been parodied in Dumm Dumm Dumm (2001), and Chellame (2004).
In a 2012 interview, Kamal derided Srinivasan, claiming that the latter was not happy about shooting the film in Bombay, that films 'were a business' for him and he 'wasn't interested in films as art'
Srinivasan wrote an article titled 'Living in past glory', his rejoinder to Haasan's article, in which he accused Haasan of 'distorting the facts for reasons best known to him.'
Several reports claimed that Rajinikanth had wanted to do a film like Nayakan for long, and its similarities with Pa. Ranjith's script for Kabali (2016) made him accept to star in the latter film.
Here are a few rare posters and paper-ads of the 1987 film...
Here are some posters and paper-ads of the Telugu dubbed version of the film...
Here are some posters and paper-ads of the Hindi-dubbed version of the film...
