Hey Ram, the directorial debut of Kamal Hassan in Tamil, begins with a dedication to Kamal’s mentor Ananthu.
The shoot kickstarted in the Madhava Perumal Temple, Mylapore, Chennai.
Initially Kamal Haasan had roped in violinist L. Subramaniam to compose music for the film.
Kamal Haasan completed shooting the whole film along with the song sequences that were composed by L. Subramaniam.
But when Kamal approached L Subramaniam for the final sound for mixing, he had asked for 1 crore remuneration, which was not the amount agreed upon earlier.
Rumours, however, suggested that Subramaniam left the project fearing that his association with the film may offend Hindu people due to its contentious storyline.
Kamal went back to composer Ilaiyaraaja to help him solve this tricky situation.
Kamal quotes, 'Raja didn't ask me what went wrong, he should have asked, but he didn't, that shows his true character. He asked me point blank, what shall we do next?'
Kamal told Ilaiyaraaja that the songs had already been shot with the music composed by L Subramaniam and he wanted to remove the songs and re-shoot them with Ilaiyaraaja's.
On hearing this, Ilaiyaraaja suggested Kamal Haasan he would fix it without needing to re-shoot any footage including songs.
Puzzled, Kamal Haasan initially was not so enthusiastic about this idea.
Then Ilaiyaraaja asked Kamal, 'you don't trust me to do this?'. Kamal immediately agreed and said he would go with Ilaiyaraaja's idea.
The lyrics for the songs were not changed but Ilaiyaraaja composed new tunes for the songs that would be in sync with the already shot footage.
The background music and the songs were recorded in Laslo Kovaks of Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Hungary.
Hey Ram, thus, became the second Indian movie to feature a soundtrack performed by a full fledged symphony orchestra.
The first time to feature a soundtrack performed by a symphony orchestra was again by Raja himself three years before, for the Malayalam film, Guru (1997).
The song 'Isaiyil Thodangudhamma' was not there initially, but Ilaiyaraaja had seen an opportunity for a possible song there and asked Kamal Haasan to give a chance to add one.
Ilaiyaraaja convinced Kamal Haasan to trust him with this and brought notable Hindustani singer Ajoy Chakrabarty to sing one of the most celebrated songs from the movie.
Raja, in fact, also wrote the lyrics for Isaiyil Thodangudhamma.
Ilayaraaja's eldest son Kartik Raja had a major role in composing the song, Ramar Analum.
'Ragupathi Raghav..' played during the title sequence in the background is a Hindu devotional song but it is sung like a Mosque prayer call.
The Sankaracharya of Kanchi, had also filmed an interview scene for the film, but later requested that his portions were removed to avoid controversy.
Shah Rukh Khan did not ask for any remuneration from Kamal Haasan as he considered it an honour and privilege to work with one of his mentors.
Shah Rukh had received only a wrist watch as his pay for the film.
When Shah Rukh first met Kamal Haasan for the first time, he was over awed. He asked if he could 'touch' Kamal as he was huge fan and could not believe he was finally meeting him.
Shah Rukh Khan's character was named Amjad Khan as a tribute to Kamal Haasan's good friendship with actor Amjad Khan.
Haasan initially intended to title the film as Satya Sodanai, which loosely translates to My Experiments With Truth, the title of Gandhi's autobiography.
Kamal Haasan badly wanted Esha Deol for Vasundhara Das's role. But Hema Malini declined the offer.
Kamal Hassan then offered Mythili Iyengar's role to Kareena Kapoor, who also declined it.
Vasundhara Das had then done a screen test for a Mani Ratnam film. But she was unsure about a acting career. Mani Ratnam liked her alot but knew she was not ready.
Word got out to Kamal Haasan's office about the audition and the actor called Vasundhara to meet him.
Kamal wanted someone who looked a little like Hema Malini and had a Iyengar nose, with the front lobe a little lower than the nostrils. Just like Kamal Haasan himself.
Kamal also mentioned later that Vasundhara's eyes were the same color as his younger daughter. This made him very sentimental in signing her.
When Kamal offered the role to Vasundhara, he told her about the steamy scenes. He also said that if she refused he would have to take another heroine because the scenes were integral to the script.
The role of Shriram Abhyankar played by Atul Kulkarni was supposed to be played by noted Marathi actor Mohan Gokhale
Mohan Gokhalee had started shooting for the film in Madras but suddenly he died due to heart attack in sleep.
When the first poster of Hey Ram was released, Tushar Gandhi called Kamal Hassan and asked him to stop making the film. He said if Kamal played Gandhi’s killer people would sympathise with the killer.
Kamal explained the nature of the film to Tushar and later roped him in to play a part in the film's post-credits scene.
When Mahatma Gandhi was shot, the last words he uttered were 'Hey Ram'. But the film does not depict it. This is to signify that the film features a fictionalized version.
General feeling was that Shah Rukh Khan's role should have been credited as a cameo. Kamal had huge posters of Shah Rukh all over Mumbai. This backfired as Shah Rukh' s role in the film was minor.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui was an assistant in the film 'Hey Ram'. He had acted a small part in the film which was edited out due to the long duration of the film.
This wasn't told to Nawazuddin on the day of Hey Ram's premiere. He was all dressed up in a suit and was crying in car park because of that.
Hey Ram is one of the 3 films in which poet Vaali makes an on-screen appearance.
Kamal Haasan signed Shadaab Khan due to his old friendship with Shadaab's father, Amjad Khan.
Kamal Haasan signed Shadaab Khan to play the rapist due to his old friendship with Shadaab's father Amjad Khan. Amjad Khan memorably played the baddie in Kamal's Vikram.
Amitabh Bachchan saw the film and enjoyed it. But he found it rather long. Kamal responded that if Amitabh layed down he still would be taller than Kamal Haasan. Kamal stated that in good humour.
Kamal Haasan did intense body building for his bare chested scenes.
Kamal’s then wife, Sarika, handled costumes while daughter Shruti Haasan had a cameo in the film; Shruti also worked in the sound department.
Hey Ram fetched three national awards for its crew — Sarika bagged one for costume design, Atul Kulkarni for supporting role and Manthra for visual effects.
Kamal Haasan reportedly said that he’d pursue direction full time if Hey Ram became successful. It was critically acclaimed but saw a below-average run at the box office.
At a special screening of Hey Ram for ‘Gandhi 150’, last year in Chennai, Kamal said that for him, SRK was the hero of the film. It was Amjad’s story all the way.
The Delhi hotel in which Saket Ram stays in the film is the same in which Nathuram Godse stayed before he assassinated Gandhi. It is said that Kamal stayed in this place to understand the character.
Hey Ram was India’s official entry for the 2000 Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
Naseeruddin Shah fulfilled a lifelong dream when he played Gandhi in this film. The actor had earlier unsuccessfully auditioned for the titular role in the Richard Attenborough directed biopic, Gandhi
The English version of the film titled Confessions of an Assassin was announced in 2004, but it is yet to materialise.
Hey Ram set before and after the partition, spans across multiple regions from Mohenjo-Daro, Calcutta, Thanjavur to Madras, Bombay, Varanasi and Chandni Chowk.
The film features characters who speak Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, English, Hindi, Malayalam, making it a pan-Indian film, where the actors all spoke Tamil and Hindi in Live Sync Sound.
Kamal Hassan has said that Hey Ram was the foundation that led him towards his political journey.
Shah Rukh Khan has bought the Hindi remake rights of the film.
