| Indian | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | S. Shankar |
| Written by |
|
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography |
|
| Edited by | |
| Music by | |
Production companies |
|
Release dates | |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
| Budget | ₹265–315 crore (3 films) |
| Box office | est. ₹35 crore (1 film) |
Indian is an Indian Tamil-language vigilante action film series created by S. Shankar and produced by Sri Surya Movies, Lyca Productions and Red Giant Movies. It stars Kamal Haasan in the titular role, alongside an ensemble cast. Set in different timelines, the series follows Senapathy, a freedom fighter turned vigilante who fights against corruption, known as 'Indian Thatha'.
The first instalment, Indian, was released worldwide on 9 May 1996 to positive reviews from critics and became one of the highest grossing Tamil films upon release. The sequel Indian 2 released on 12 July 2024 to generally negative reviews from critics. A direct sequel to Indian 2 is scheduled to release in January 2025.
Films
editIndian (1996)
editAn honest veteran, having served in the Indian Army, decides to teach corrupt officials a lesson. He targets officials, ministers, and bureaucrats to make them work diligently without accepting bribes.
Indian 2 (2024)
editSenapathy, an ex-freedom fighter turned vigilante who fights against corruption. Senapathy returns to the country to aid a young man who has been exposing corrupt politicians in the country through videos on the internet.
Indian 3 (2025)
editProduction
editIndian
edit
Soon after the release of Gentleman (1993), Shankar narrated a script titled Periya Manushan to actor Rajinikanth, but the pair did not end up collaborating.[1] He then considered making the film in Telugu with Rajasekhar in a leading role, alongside either Nagarjuna or Venkatesh, but the plans did not materialise. On 17th of February 1995, the official muhurat pooja for this movie took place, with Rajinikanth attending the event as its chief guest, and producer A. M. Rathnam signed on Shankar to make this venture featuring leading actor Kamal Haasan in the lead role. The film, retitled as Indian, was initially reported to be loosely based on the life of prominent Indian freedom fighter, Subhas Chandra Bose.[2]
Shankar tried to cast Aishwarya Rai to make her debut and portray the leading female role. Her commitment to her advertisement agency until October 1995 meant that she was unavailable to sign the film.[2] Subsequently, Manisha Koirala was selected after Shankar was impressed with her performance in Bombay. The producers wanted Radhika to play the pair of the older Kamal Haasan in the film, but her television commitments meant that she was unable to sign a contract. Urvashi's sister subsequently replaced her, only for Shankar to throw her out for missing a day's schedule to attend her wedding. The role was finally handed to Sukanya, who had previously appeared alongside Kamal Haasan in Mahanadhi. Bollywood actress Urmila Matondkar was signed to play another leading role in the film after the producers were impressed with her performance and the success of her 1995 Hindi film, Rangeela.[2] Malayalam character actor Nedumudi Venu signed on to play the role of CBI officer Krishnaswamy at Haasan's recommendation,[3] while Nassar dubbed his voice.[4] The producers engaged Hollywood make-up artists Michael Westmore and Michael Jones to work on the designs for the senior Kamal Haasan's and Sukanya's look in the film.[5] The senior Kamal Haasan's look for the character Senapathy was based on Haasan's father.[6] Shankar initially wanted P. C. Sreeram to handle cinematography; however due to his other commitments, Jeeva was chosen as cinematographer.[7] One of the assistant directors chanced upon a book by varma kalai practitioner R. Rajendran about the martial art, and Rajendran was hired to teach Haasan the same.[8]
For production work, Shankar visited Las Vegas to learn about new technology and purchased cameras for production. Furthermore, the director visited Australia alongside cinematographer Jeeva and music director A. R. Rahman to location hunt and to compose tunes.[2] The film's unit was given strict orders to maintain privacy, with Hindi actor Jackie Shroff being notably turned away from visiting the shooting spot. A song for the film was shot at Prasad Studios featuring Haasan and Matondkar alongside 70 Bombay models.[9] This led to a protest from the Cine Dancers Union who argued that Tamil dancers should have been utilised instead, with Shankar opting to pay them off to avoid further hassle. Another duet between Haasan and Koirala was shot near the Sydney Opera House in Sydney and Canberra for fifteen days.[10] A flashback song was canned with four hundred dancers and a thousand extras at Gingee with Kamal Haasan and Sukanya, while another song featured shooting in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.[2][5] A fight scene was shot at Irungkaattukottai Motor Racing Track.[11] The flashback sequences, set during pre-Independent India, were in black-and-white.[12] Graphic designer Venky noted that Indian was his most difficult project to date (in 1997) with a scene constructed to feature Kamal Haasan's character alongside Subhas Chandra Bose. Venky had to remove blemishes on the film reel of Bose provided by the Film Division's archive before merging Haasan on to the shot to make it appear that the pair were marching in tandem.[13]
Indian was the most expensive Indian film at the time. According to an estimate by critic G. Dhananjayan, the production budget was ₹8 crores (worth ₹96 crores in 2021 prices).[14] Rediff.com however estimated budget to be ₹15 crore.[15][16] The music video for "Akadanu Naanga" directed by Padam Kumar and choreographed by Vaibhavi Merchant, cost ₹1.5 crore.[17]
Indian 2 and Indian 3
editCast and crew
editThis table lists the main characters who appear in the Indian Franchise.
This section includes characters who will appear or have appeared in Indian film series.
- An empty, dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film, or that the character's official presence has not yet been confirmed.
- A indicates an appearance through archival footage or audio.
- C indicates a cameo role.
- V indicates a voice-only role.
- Y indicates a younger version of the character.
| Character | Films | |
|---|---|---|
| Indian 1 (1996) | Indian 2 (2024) and Indian 3 (2025) | |
| Senapathy / Indian | Kamal Haasan | |
| Aishwarya | Manisha Koirala | |
| Sapna | Urmila Matondkar | |
| Amrithavalli | Sukanya | |
| Kuppamma | Manorama | |
| Subbaiah | Goundamani | |
| Panneerselvam | Senthil | |
| Krishnaswamy IPS | Nedumudi Venu | |
| Kasturi Senapathy | Kasthuri | |
| Corrupt doctor | Nizhalgal Ravi | |
| Freedom fighter | Ajay Rathnam | |
| "Kada" Kumar | Ponnambalam | |
| Treasury department officer | Bala Singh | |
| TBA | Chokkalinga Bhagavathar | |
| Lorry driver | Omakuchi Narasimhan | |
| Parthasarathy | Crazy Mohan | |
| TBA | Vikram Dharma | |
| Customer | Kovai Senthil | |
| TBA | Mahanadhi Shankar | |
| Dancer | Praveen Kumar SobtiC | |
| TBA | S. V. VenkatramanC | |
| Chitra Aravindhan | Siddharth | |
| Disha | Rakul Preet Singh | |
| Sakalakala Vallavan Sarguna Pandian | S. J. Suryah | |
| Pramod | Bobby Simha | |
| CBI officer | Vivek | |
| Aarthi | Priya Bhavani Shankar | |
| Ramana Reddy | Brahmanandam | |
| Varadharajan | Samuthirakani | |
| Nilesh | Kalidas Jayaram | |
| Krishna Mohan | Delhi Ganesh | |
| Nanjunda Moorthy | Manobala | |
| Thambesh | Jagan | |
| Amit Agarwal | Gulshan Grover | |
| Darshan Bhai | Zakir Hussain | |
| Kishan Singh | Piyush Mishra | |
| Madanlal Mehta | Akhilendra Mishra | |
| TBA | Jayaprakash | |
| TBA | G. Marimuthu | |
| TBA | George Maryan | |
| TBA | Vinod Sagar | |
| TBA | Yograj Singh | |
| TBA | Renuka | |
| TBA | Kalyani Natarajan | |
| TBA | C. Ranganathan | |
| TBA | Benedict Garrett | |
| TBA | Ravi Venkatraman | |
| TBA | Cheranraj | |
| Demi-Leigh Tebow | Demi-Leigh TebowC | |
| Sivaji | RajinikanthC | |
Crew
edit| Occupation | Film | |
|---|---|---|
| Indian (1996) | Indian 2 (2024) and Indian 3 (2025) | |
| Director | S. Shankar | |
| Producer | A. M. Rathnam | Subaskaran Allirajah, Udhayanidhi Stalin |
| Writer | S. Shankar | |
| Dialogues | Sujatha | B. Jeyamohan, Kabilan Vairamuthu, Lakshmi Saravana Kumar |
| Cinematography | Jeeva | Ravi Varman |
| Editor | B. Lenin V. T. Vijayan |
A. Sreekar Prasad |
| Music | A. R. Rahman | Anirudh Ravichander |
Release
edit| Film | Release date | Budget | Box office revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indian | 9 May 1996 | ₹15 crore (US$4.23 million) | ₹35 crore (US$9.88 million) |
| Indian 2 | 12 July 2024 | ₹250 crore (US$30 million) – ₹300 crore (US$36 million) | TBA |
| Indian 3 | January 2025 | ||
| Total | ₹265 crore (US$32 million) – ₹315 crore (US$38 million) | ₹35 crore (US$9.88 million) | |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Rajinikanth was Shankar's first choice for India but Superstar turned it down". India Today. 18 January 2019. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Sitaraman, Sandya (3 February 1996). "Tamil Movie News--Pudhu Edition(Cont.)". Google Groups. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ^ സംവിധായകൻ ശങ്കർ നെടുമുടിയുടെ അഭിനയം കണ്ട് അന്ന് ചോദിച്ചത് | Kamal Hasan | Nedumudi Venu | Kairali TV (in Malayalam). Kairali TV. 23 October 2021. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Nasser gets a rare Honour". IndiaGlitz.com. 2 May 2016. Archived from the original on 3 March 2024. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
- ^ a b Sitaraman, Sandya (29 March 1996). "Tamil Movie News--Pudhu Edition(Cont.)". Google Groups. Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ^ "Kamal Haasan's Senapathy look from 'Indian' was based on his father: Shankar". India Today. 27 June 2024. Archived from the original on 27 June 2024. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
- ^ "எனக்கு யாரும் சிஷ்யர்கள் இல்லை!". Kalki (in Tamil). 30 July 2006. pp. 56–57. Archived from the original on 30 March 2024. Retrieved 30 March 2024 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Ramanujam, Srinivasa (5 May 2021). "25 years of 'Indian': Meet 'Aasaan' Rajendran, who taught 'varmakkalai' to Kamal Haasan". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 8 May 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
- ^ Sitaraman, Sandya (3 February 1996). "Tamil Movie News--Pudhu Edition". Google Groups. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ^ Rajitha (4 April 1997). "'The story line is important, the rest are like cosmetics'". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 30 December 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ Raman, Mohan (25 August 2020). "#MadrasThroughTheMovies: Films that captured the 'sport'y Madras". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 6 March 2024. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
- ^ Sundaram, Nandhu (2 October 2017). "Kamal Haasan's Indian set benchmark for special effects, art direction — How will the sequel fare?". Firstpost. Archived from the original on 3 November 2023. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
- ^ Rajitha (4 November 1997). "The Grand Illusion". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ Dhananjayan 2014, p. 353.
- ^ Saraswathi, S (7 November 2014). "Birthday Special: Kamal Haasan's 60 years of excellence". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 5 February 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
- ^ "Official exchange rate (LCU per US$, period average)". World Bank. 1996. Archived from the original on 16 January 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
- ^ Chopra, Anupama (15 March 1997). "Film scripts demand extravagant song sequences to make box office jingle". India Today. Archived from the original on 16 January 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2013.