Kangana Ranaut: Jaya Amma’s songs are part of pop culture

Kangana-Arvind pay tribute to Jayalalithaa-MGR by revisiting four of their iconic tracks in Thalaivii song

A retelling of J Jayalalithaa’s life would perhaps be incomplete without a mention of late actor-politician MG Ramachandra, better known as MGR. In Thalaivii, Kangana Ranaut and Arvind Swamy have paid a tribute to the actor duo with Teri aankhon mein. The track sees them recreate iconic moments from four of Jayalalithaa and MGR’s popular songs — Kanne kaniye and Enna porutham from Ragasiya Police 115 (1968), Ninaithathai nadathiye from Nam Naadu (1969), and Ninaithen vanthai from Kaavalkaaran (1967).

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Ranaut, who has taken on the task of bringing the late Tamil Nadu chief minister’s life on screen, says that she devoured Jayalalithaa’s songs, studying her movements. “Jaya Amma’s songs are significant because they are part of pop culture. This song is an amalgamation of those tracks. Jaya Ma and MGR gave 60 to 70 songs together. They worked together for decades, but we had to crack it in the span of four days. In a day, I would go through several looks and hairstyles,” says the actor, admitting that pulling off the different looks was taxing. “The two forces of Tamil cinema created fireworks on screen, and I wanted that magic to be authentic.”

What made it all the more challenging was that director AL Vijay filmed the song at a time when Ranaut was gearing up for the latter half of the biopic and had begun to gain 20 kilos to look the part. “In her younger days, Jaya Amma had an hourglass body. But we were on the brink of shooting the second hour of the film. My director took it upon himself to make sure I was well-fed. His mother’s handmade meals came in three tiffins,” she laughs.

Also read: Kangana Ranaut starrer 'Thalaivii' to release in theatres on September 10

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