25 years of ‘Iruvar’: Did you know Mammootty was supposed to play a major role in the movie?

Without any doubt, one could say that the film ‘

Iruvar

’ is one of the well-crafted movies of the renowned director Mani Ratnam. Today the movie clocks 25 years since its initial release. The movie was loosely based on M.G.R, M Karunanidhi, and J. Jayalalitha who were the three pillars of Tamil politics and cinema, and was played by the actors Mohanlal, Prakash Raj, and Aishwarya Rai respectively.

As per the sources, the Malayalam superstar Mammootty was supposed to be a part of Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus ‘Iruvar’. Mani Ratnam approached actor Mammootty to play the role of Tamilselvan based on M. Karunanidhi’s life. But due to some reasons, Mammootty rejected the role, and later the character was played by the actor Prakash Raj. The sources also said that the director Mani Ratnam had a hard time choosing a perfect actor to play Tamilselvan and the role had several re-casts.

During the year 2018, when the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister DMK Karunanidhi passed away, Mammootty penned a tribute note on his official Facebook handle. In the note, he said that he missed an opportunity to work in Mani Ratnam’s movie ‘Iruvar’ and regret rejecting an opportunity to play the character Tamilselvan.

Mammootty has previously worked with director Mani Ratnam for the movie ‘Thalapathi’ which was released in the year 1991 and he shared screen space with the Tamil superstar Rajinikanth. The movie ‘Thalapthi’ received much adulation from the general audience and the character Devaraj played by Mammootty is undoubtedly one of the iconic characters in movie history.