Kangana Ranaut to learn Tamil for Jayalalithaa biopic

Kangana Ranaut will be essaying the role of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and film legend J Jayalalithaa in her upcoming biopic. Titled Thalaivi in Tamil and Jaya in Hindi, the bilingual drama is scripted by Baahubali-writer Vijayendra Prasad and helmed by Devi-director Vijay. Before commencing shoot in September, Kangana will be learning Tamil to prepare for the iconic role.

“The scenes will be in Tamil, and I will learn the language to understand the character better and feel closer to her. I will begin my language classes once I complete my commitments to Panga and Mental Hai Kya," Kangana said. 

Speaking about the script of Thalaivi, the actor noted that she was drawn to the similarities between her and Jayalalithaa’s lives. “I see parallels with my own journey in hers, but her success story is much bigger than mine,” Kangana said, adding, “In the first narration itself, I could see myself doing the part because it came naturally to me. I could have gone ahead with my own biopic, but this was much more enticing.”

This is not the first time Kangana is working in a South Indian film. She had appeared opposite Prabhas in Puri Jagannadh’s Telugu action film, Ek Niranjan, in 2009 and Jayam Ravi's action thriller Dhaam Dhoom in 2008. Sharing her thoughts on working in regional film industries, Kangana added, “Regional films have always interested me. When we go there to promote our films, we realise they have a thriving industry of their own and there is a major lack of connecting with that audience as a Hindi film actor. I was looking for the right script to come my way and when it did, I lapped it up.”