Queen Elizabeth Spent 20 Minutes On Kamal Hassan’s Marudhanayagam Sets
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Kamal Haasan is well known for his innovation and thirst to add novelty to Tamil cinema. So it is only fair that the actor’s dream project, Marudhanayagam, got a royal push from none other than Queen Elizabeth II.
Kamal Haasan’s ambitious project was an Rs 85-crore historical venture based on the life of Marudhanayagam, who had contributed to India’s freedom struggle. The project, which was started in 1997, however, failed to see the light of day despite several attempts of revival. The 1997 launch of the movie, though, is still well remembered as it had Queen Elizabeth II as the chief guest.
The Queen spent 20 minutes in the MGR film city on October 16, 1997, during which a short battle scene from the movie was shown to her. The battle scene alone was reportedly shot at a budget of Rs 1.5 crore.
However, the movie ran into financial troubles a year after the launch as the British company which was co-producing the project backed out. There have been repeated attempts at reviving the project, but they’ve all failed.
In 2020, Haasan has stated, “I envisaged that the titular character would be around 40 years of age, but I’m too old to play him now. So the only option – if we get the money to bankroll it – would be either to change the storyline or cast some other younger actor to play the role.”
Many fans are still hoping that the project will be revived.
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