A teary-eyed Kangana!

From the very beginning, Kangana Ranaut has maintained that the Jayalalithaa biopic, Thalaivi, was one of the most challenging projects she’s ever said yes to. One truly saw the effort that the actress had put into her performance in the trailer released today across three languages – Telugu, Tamil and Hindi. Kangana was breathing fire into every frame in her portrayal of the actor, politician, as she shared screen space alongside Aravind Swami, Madhoo, Bhagyashree, Samuthirakani. The 34th birthday for the actress couldn’t have been more memorable for her.

In the trailer launch event held in Chennai, Kangana was thankful to the makers for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “I always get recommended to be thrown out of movies. But, it took a man like (writer) Vijayendra Prasad sir to recommend me for the movie. I’m grateful to him. There may be nepotism in the South, but there are no gangs, groups or politics played on the sets. They are so helpful, welcoming to outsiders and the on-set atmosphere was very healthy,” she said.

Kangana shared that she was intimidated by the presence of Samuthirakani during the shoot, adding he remained in the character even off the camera. She was moved to tears while talking about her director A L Vijay. “He survived on water abroad when we were doing the look test – he neither drinks, socialises after set nor talks too much. He’s the only filmmaker to have not made me feel bad for my talent. Most directors share great creative partnerships with male actors, but Vijay is the first director to have been open for discussions with me and didn’t make me feel apologetic about my talent.”

Thalaivi, produced by Vishnu Induri and Shailesh R Singh, releases on April 23.