Kollywood: Mani Ratnam on why his 1997 Dravidian biopic flopped

Kollywood: More than two decades ago, noted director Mani Ratnam had attempted to showcase the lives and times of two Tamil Nadu politicians – MGR and Karunanidhi – in his film ' Iruvar', dubbed and released in Telugu too as 'Iddare'. Released during Pongal in 1997, the movie was a casting coup with Prakash Raj playing the DMK leader, Mohanlal playing MGR and Aishwarya Rai, who made her silver screen debut playing Jayalalitha.

In a recent YouTube cine programme, one of the modern day directors, Vasantha Balan recollected what Mani Ratnam told him about the BO fate of his magnum opus. According to the latter, the film was 'too polished' and ' too decent' for the audiences, who would have wished to see a little more action, given that the two leaders who were very close friends in DMK later went on to be challengers and political rivals. Still, the film is a huge draw on the satellite channels and the songs and musical score of A R Rahman is very much remembered even today.