Rajinikanth hesitant, KS Ravikumar interested to revive historical film Rana

Rajinikanth and KS Ravikumar were keen to do a historical film based on Ranadhira, a Pandya king of early medieval south India, many years ago. After the Tamil superstar fell ill in 2010, the project was dropped, but Soundarya Rajinikanth came up with an animation film, a prequel to the story narrated by Ravikumar.

Yet KS Ravikumar seems to have not lost hopes on the film, as he has expressed his wish to do the film with Rajini. Speaking with The Times of India, the filmmaker has opened up on receiving a call from the Tamil superstar asking him to narrate the story again, six months ago.

"It had a good story and led up to the story of Rana. Also, the film made sense then because it didn't exert too much pressure on Rajini sir, who had just recovered. Even today, I revisit the script of Rana — the story was Rajini's and I had done the screenplay. About six months ago, he asked me to narrate the story to him once again. After hearing it, he said, 'Ippo nammala panna mudiyuma?' I said it was possible," KS Ravikumar is quoted as saying by the daily.

Explaining why Rajinikanth is hesitant to take up such a massive project, the filmmaker said that the actor has politics in mind and unsure whether he would dedicate the required time for the film if he becomes full-time neta.

"But he had politics on mind and said he didn't know if he had that kind of time to invest in a film that required a grand scale of production. Rajini pannina nalla irukkum, but we don't know what's in store for Rana," the director concluded.

Rajinikanth continues to be a top star in the Indian film industry at the age of 69. His films evoke huge interest among South Indian cine-goers. With the borders blurring and south films like Baahubali and KGF getting warm reception from the Hindi audience, there is a scope for high-scale experimentation although there is a lot of risks involved in it.

The actor is currently working on Siruthai Siva's Annaatthe.