Kangana Ranaut has made a big announcement on her birthday on March 23. Riding high on the success of Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, Kangana Ranaut is all set to play J Jayalalithaa on screen in a Tamil-Hindi biopic being directed by AL Vijay and produced by Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Shaailesh R Singh. The film is called Thalaivi in Tamil and Jaya in Hindi.
After Vidya Balan played the role of NTR's first wife- Basavatamma in NTR biopic, there were rumours that she was also being considered for Thalaivi to play J Jayalalithaa. South actress Nayanthara was also in the reckoning. The part finally went to Kangana Ranaut. Interestingly, Thalaivi aka Jaya is written by KV Vijayendra Prasad, the writer of Kangana Ranaut's Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, of the Bahubali series and also Salman Khan's film Bajrangi Bhaijaan.
Bombay Times quotes Kangana Ranaut as saying about the biopic, "Jayalalithaa ji is one of the biggest female success stories of this century. She was a superstar and went on to be an iconic politician. It's a great concept for a mainstream film. I am honoured to be a part of this mega project."
Kangana Ranaut had recently talked about making a biopic on her own life, directing it herself. The actress had also spoken about doing a warrior princess movie trilogy, starting with Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi.
Kangana Ranaut had turned director for Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi when director Krish walked out of the project halfway through. The film got rave reviews by critics but almost managed to recover its budget at the box office. However, it is said to have earned profits from satellite and other rights.
Among the other films in Kangana Ranaut's kitty are Ekta Kapoor's Mental Hai Kya with Rajkummar Rao and Ashwini Iyer Tiwari's Panga.
