After nearly 40 years, fans of the late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MG Ramachandran, or MGR, will be able to see him on screen in an animated movie titled Kizhakku Africavil Raju , next January.

The animation movie is produced by Prabhu Deva Studios in association with Vels Film International.

Kizhakku Africavil Raju was supposed to be the sequel to MGR’s super hit movie Ulagam Suttrum Vaaliban and a dream project of MGR. However the project fell through owing to his political entry in 1977.

Ishari K Ganesh, Chairman, Vels Group of Institutions, which is co-producing the movie, said the movie is more of a tribute to the actor. Ganesh said the film would also be a tribute to his father, Ishari Velan, who had acted with MGR in more than 30 movies and was also MGR’s close friend. “After my father passed away it was MGR who helped our family. So I wanted to do something for him,” he said.

“What could be a better way than making a motion picture on the project that was close to his heart,” he asked. That was how Kizhakku Africavil Raju was born. However, the movie will not be what the late actor had envisioned. Ganesh said: “We wanted to make a movie that his fans and youngsters enjoy. So you will see lot of bike races and fights. You will see that the actor sports a French beard,” he added.

In the movie MGR is a scientist and a few of his contemporaries like Ishari Velan can be seen. “He plays the role of comedian in the movie,” Ganesh said. “Now we are working on other characters,” he added.

Bringing life to characters

“But bringing to life the 3D characters is a major challenge, especially MGR,” Ganesh added. Arul Moorthy, Animation Director of the movie, said: “It is challenging because you need to convince people that this is MGR given his demi-god status in Tamil Nadu.”

For that the creator must understand the mannerism like how they stand and sit and also how the character thinks. “In a nutshell I need to put myself in MGR’s shoes and need to know how he looks at things,” he says. “There are enough references in archives and we are also taking help from people who have been with MGR for a long time,” he added.

First look

Even with so many references, Moorthy said it took two months to just come up with the first look. “It is still not enough and we are working on further character development,” he added. Moorthy said: “We are also bringing latest technologies available like Lidar to make characters like their real self.”

Since the project is in pre-production phase, the budget is yet to be finalised. The team is working in multiple locations to get the theatrical release by January 17 — his next birth anniversary. “Currently around 50 people are working across locations like Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and the US, to get this done,” Ganesh said.

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