Kochadaiyaan Artwork - 01 by Artist Anikartick,Chennai

Kochadaiiyaan (English: The king with a long, curly mane[5]) is an upcoming 2014 Indian Tamil motion capture 3D computer-animated period film directed by Soundarya R. Ashwin and written by K. S. Ravikumar. The film will feature Rajinikanth enacting and voicing three lead roles, whilst R. Sarathkumar, Aadhi, Deepika Padukone, Shobana, Rukmini Vijayakumar, Jackie Shroff, and Nassar enact and voice supporting characters. The film has cinematography handled by Rajiv Menon whilst background score and soundtrack is composed by A. R. Rahman.

 

Shooting for the film was completed by the end of February 2013 while post-production work took place in the United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong, and China.[3][6][7] The film is set to release worldwide on 9 May 2014 simultaneously in other languages, including Hindi, Telugu, Japanese, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, and English.[2][8]

 

Contents

 

1 Cast

2 Production

2.1 Development

2.2 Casting

2.3 Design

2.4 Filming

3 Music

3.1 Original soundtrack

3.2 Sound design

4 Marketing

5 Release

6 Sequel

7 References

8 External links

 

Cast

 

Rajinikanth as Kochadaiiyaan, Rana and Sena[9]

R. Sarathkumar as Sengodagan

Deepika Padukone as Princess Vadhana[10]

Shobana as Yaahavi

Aadhi as Veera Mahendra

Jackie Shroff as Raja Mahendra

Nassar as Rishikodagan

Rukmini Vijayakumar as Yamuna

 

Late actor Nagesh's likeness was also used in the film, by means of a 3D model, created using high-resolution images of him. Actors who sound like him were hired to voice his character while those who had a similar appearance to his, performed the character's performance capture scenes.[3]

Production

Development

"Animation is a word, a process. In India, people think animation is cartoon. Avatar was animation, but is not a cartoon. Tintin is completely cartoonistic. I am creating Rajinikanth, where he has actually performed, it's captured on a camera and then put into a 3D version. Avatar took seven years and so much budget and a James Cameron. There was always the insecurity of the unknown, but we have taken a road never taken in India and broken rules and have completed the film in just a year and a half."

— Soundarya on Kochadaiiyaan, in an interview with The Times of India[11]

 

After the release of Enthiran (2010), Rajinikanth approached K. S. Ravikumar to help complete an animation feature that Soundarya Rajinikanth had begun in 2007. The project titled Sultan: The Warrior had run into problems with it's production and Rajinikanth hoped that they could salvage the project by adding a historical back plot which would make the film partially animation and partially live action. K. S. Ravikumar then developed a story for fifteen days with his team of assistants and after being impressed by the script, Rajinikanth felt that Ravikumar's story should be a entirely separate film. Thus the team launched a venture titled Rana, to be dually-produced by Soundarya's Ocher Picture Productions and Eros Entertainment.[12] However, Rajinikanth became ill and was treated for dehydration and exhaustion at a hospital, resulting in postponement of Rana's filming.[13] On 23 November 2011, for her maiden directorial project, Soundarya tweeted through her Twitter account, notifying followers to watch out for an official announcement.[14] Following the delay, the team considered making Rana as an animation film but Rajinikanth was insistent that the film would be a live action film and prevented Ravikumar potentially discussing the script with Telugu actor Chiranjeevi. Film producer Murali Manohar then suggested that an animation film could potentially be a sequel to Rana and thus the team began work on Kochadaiiyaan. A tentatively scheduled release period of August 2012 was also announced.[15] The film was finalised to be a co-production of Eros Entertainment and Media One Global.[16] Soundarya further stated that Ravikumar had worked with her father and herself on the script of the film.[17] With regards to the film's title, Ravikumar claimed that it drew reference to an alternate name of Hindu deity Shiva, while also being partly inspired by the name of the Pandya Dynasty king Kochadaiyan Ranadhiran, and that the plot would be a fictional account with small references to Indian history.[18] The director clarified that Kochadaiiyaan was not related to the same-titled history series being published by the Tamil magazine Kumudam.[19] When rumors circulated that the temporarily shelved feature Rana was being remade as Kochadaiiyaan, Ravikumar denied theses rumors saying, "Kochadaiyaan has nothing to do with Ranadheeran or Rana." Latha Rajinikanth also clarified that the film would serve as a prequel to Rana.[20] In October 2013, the name of the film was changed from Kochadaiyaan to Kochadaiiyaan on Rajinikanth's request citing numerological reasons.[21]

Casting

 

For the female lead role, Anushka Shetty was initially approached,[22] but sources confirmed later that she was not part of the film.[23] It was then rumoured that Asin Thottumkal and Vidya Balan were being considered for the role, since producers preferred a Bollywood actress.[24] Soundarya approached Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif in January 2012,[25] who was not able to clear her schedule for the film and the team reapproached Balan.[26] Despite reports that Kaif was finalised,[27] Deepika Padukone, who was slated to pair with Rajinikanth in Rana, took up the offer in February 2012, marking her debut in Tamil cinema.[28] Padukone was paid a salary of INR3 crore (US$500,000) for shooting only for two days in the film.[29] According to Soundarya, she was "quite relieved to not be wearing make-up for a film for the first time in her career."[30] Although reports of November 2012 suggested that lead actress Deepika Padukone would dub her own voice for the Tamil version,[31] it was later announced that she would dub only for the Hindi version[32] as the dialogues required authentic Tamil pronunciations.[33] Hence, Savitha Reddy dubbed the voice for Padukone in the Tamil version.[34] In January 2014, it was revealed that dubbing artiste Mona Ghosh Shetty had dubbed Padukone's voice for the Hindi version,[35] because the actress was unavailable during the dubbing schedules.[33] Shetty had earlier dubbed for Padukone's debut in Om Shanti Om (2007).[35]

 

The film began to increase its casting profile after Malayalam actor Prithviraj was rumoured to have been signed to play an important role in the film.[36] The rumour was falsified following the inclusion of Aadhi, who was known for his lead-role performances in Mirugam and Eeram, in the cast; when he confirmed his presence in the project, he remarked that working with Rajinikanth was "a realisation of a dream that he has had since childhood".[37] Sneha was reported to be finalised for a supporting role,[38] with the actress confirming her presence in the film in December 2011.[39] She, however, opted-out a couple of months later citing conflicts in her schedule and Rukmini Vijayakumar was signed in her place.[40] R. Sarathkumar accepted Soundarya's offer for an important role in the film while veteran actor Nassar was recruited in the film as well for a supporting role.[27][41]

 

Furthermore, Shobana and Lakshmi Manchu were said to be considered for a role in the film.[42] Soundarya confirmed that the former was added to the cast saying that she was the "only choice for the role" as the character was written keeping her in mind.[43][44] Soundarya disclaimed the rumour that Aishwarya Rai was chosen to do a guest appearance in the film.[45] Bollywood actor Jackie Shroff was also approached for an antagonistic role.[46] Shroff immediately gave his consent, when the cast and the technical scope of Kochadaiiyaan were revealed to him.[47] Reports claimed that the film would feature late actors like Nagesh, P. S. Veerappa, M. N. Nambiar, S. A. Ashokan, and R. S. Manohar recreated through sophisticated animation techniques,[48] although it was later revealed that only Nagesh was recreated for the film. According to Soundarya, "The biggest triumph for Kochadaiiyaan was bringing back late comedy actor Nagesh to the screen."[3]

 

Peter Hein was chosen as the film's action choreographer,[49] while A. R. Rahman agreed to compose the film's background score and soundtrack.[50][51] Rajiv Menon was recruited as the film's cinematographer,[52] while Resul Pookutty was recruited as the sound engineer.[53] Soundarya chose Saroj Khan, Raju Sundaram, Chinni Prakash and his wife, and Shobi to choreograph the songs.[54] Soundarya invited art professionals to send their work as she was forming an art department for Kochadaiiyaan.[55] She chose 42 students from the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai for the task, besides 50 experienced persons from the Jacob College of Fine Arts. 60 concept artistes were already reportedly working for the film.[56]

Design

 

National Award winning fashion designer Neeta Lulla worked on the looks of each character, including the lead role portrayed by Rajinikanth. According to Lulla, the project required a lot of research. Around 150 costumes per character were designed on paper and out of those, 25 costumes were selected and detailed. She also created a range of 20 to 30 looks especially for Rajinikanth's suit of armour as well as the supporting cast of Kochadaiiyaan. Lulla, along with the team working on the costumes, created the looks of all characters on sketch. They had worked for about eight months on the various characterisations of Rajinikanth and the supporting cast. According to her, "It was a different kind of design experience altogether"[57]

 

On Rajinikanth's looks, Soundarya quoted: "First, we scanned his face and made a 3D model to get the exact precision of his features, such as the scar on his nose. And then we corrected the 3D model by tightening his skin to make him look 25 years younger. They used that technology in the film Tron." The youthfulness of the look was compared to the looks that Rajinikanth carried in his film Muthu.[3] Soundarya also claimed that Rajinikanth's hairstyle in the film was inspired by his appearance in his earlier film, Thalapathi.[58]

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