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Karikala Chola or Karikala Chozhan (Tamil: கரிகால சோழன்) was one of the great Tamil kings of Early Chola during the Sangam period. He was the son of Ilamcetcenni and ruled around 270 BC.
He was also known by the epithets Karikala Peruvalathaan (கரிகால பெருவளத்தான்) and Thirumavalavan (திருமாவளவன்).
The story of Karikala is mixed with legend and anecdotal information gleaned from Sangam literature. Karikala has left us no authentic records of his reign. The only sources available to us are the numerous mentions in Sangam poetry. The period covered by the extant literature of the Sangam is unfortunately not easy to determine with any measure of certainty.
Pattinappaalai, Porunaraatruppadai and a number of individual poems in Akananuru and Purananuru have been the main source for the information that is attributed to Karikala.
Early life
Karikala was the son of Ilamcetcenni ‘…distinguished for the beauty of his numerous war chariots..’.The name Karikalan has been held to mean 'the man with the charred leg' and perpetuates the memory of a fire accident in the early years of his life. Some scholars also hold the view that the etymology is from Sanskrit' - 'kari + kalan, or "slayer of elephants". Porunar-aatrup-padai describes the back-formed origin legend of this incident as follows:
The king of Urayur Ilancetcenni married a Velir princess from Azhundur and she became pregnant and gave birth to Karikala. Ilamcetcenni died soon after. Due to his young age, Karikala's right to the throne was overlooked and there was political turmoil in the country. Karikala was exiled. When normality returned, the Chola ministers sent a state elephant to look for the prince. The elephant found the prince hiding in Karuvur. His political opponents arrested and imprisoned him. The prison was set on fire that night. Karikala escaped the fire and, with the help of his uncle Irum-pitar-thalaiyan, defeated his enemies. Karikala’s leg was scorched in the fire and from thence Karikala became his name.
Pattinap-paalai, written in praise of Karikala also describes this incident, but without mention of the fable of the burnt limb:
Like the Tiger cub with its sharp claws and its curved stripes growing (strong) within the cage, his strength came to maturity (like wood in grain) while he was in the bondage of his enemies. As the large trunked elephant pulls down the banks of the pit, and joins its mate, even so after deep and careful consideration, he drew his sword, effected his escape by overpowering the strong guard and attained his glorious heritage in due course.
Military conquests
Battle of Venni
According to Poruna-raatr-uppadai, Karikala Chola fought a great battle at Venni near Thanjavur in which both Pandya and Chera suffered crushing defeat.Although we know very little about the circumstances leading to this battle, there can be no doubt that it marked the turning point in Karikala’s career, for in this battle he broke the back of the powerful confederacy formed against him.[3] Besides the two crowned kings of the Pandya and Chera countries, eleven minor chieftains took their side in the campaign and shared defeat at the hands of Karikala. The Chera king, who was wounded on his back in the battle, committed suicide by starvation.
Venni was the watershed in the career of Karikala which established him firmly on his throne and secured for him some sort of hegemony among the three crowned monarchs. Venni which is also known as Vennipparandalai and now it is known as Kovilvenni. Kovilvenni is situated between Ammapettai(Tanjore) and Needamangalam.
Other wars and conquests
After the battle of Venni, Karikala had other opportunities to exercise his arms. He defeated the confederacy of nine minor chieftains in the battle of Vakaipparandalai. Paranar, a contemporary of Karikala, in his poem from Agananuru mentions this incident without giving any information on the cause of the conflict.
According to legends Karikalan was one of the few Tamil kings who won the whole Ceylon (Lanka). His kallanai was built after his conquer over Singalese kingdom. It was said that he did not want to use the Tamil workers to be used for moving hard stones from mountains to the river bed, instead he used the Singalese war prisoners to move the heavy stones to the river bed.
Pattinappaalai also describes the destruction caused by Karikala’s armies in the territories of his enemies and adds that as the result of these conflicts, the 'Northerners and Westerners were depressed… and his flushed look of anger caused the Pandya’s strength gave way…'
However, there is no evidence to show that Karikala’s conquests extended beyond the land of the Kaveri. the main war land in karikala cholan in in srilanka venni the last battle field and return back to sea to vakaipparadalai.
Legends
Northern conquests
Since ancient times Karikala became the subject of many myths which in modern times have often been accepted as serious history. Cila-ppati-karam (c. sixth century C.E.) which attributes northern campaigns and conquests to all the three monarchs of the Tamil country, gives a glorious account of the northern expeditions of Karikala, which took him as far north as the Himalayas and gained for him the alliance and subjugation of the kings of Vajra, Magadha and Avanti countries. There is no contemporary evidence either in Sangam literature or from the north Indian source for such an expedition.
Raising the banks of Kaveri
Later Chola kings referred to Karikala Chola as a great ancestor, and attributed him with the building of dikes along the banks of the Kaveri.
The raising of the banks of the river Kaveri by Karikala are also mentioned by the Melapadu plates of Punyakumara, a Telugu Choda king of the seventh or the eighth century C.E. This story mingles with another stream of legend centering around Trinetra Pallava, and culminates in the celebrated jingle of the late Telugu Choda inscriptions:
karuna - saroruha vihita - vilochana – pallava – trilochana pramukha kilapritvisvara karita kaveri tira
(He who caused the banks of the Kaveri to be constructed by all the subordinate kings led by the Pallava Trinetra whose third eye was blinded by his lotus foot.)
This has been made the basis of conclusions of the highest importance to the chronology of Early South Indian history.
Grand Anicut
Kallanai / Grand Anicut built by Karikala Cholan, on the River Kaveri, near Tiruchirappalli
The Grand Anicut also known as the [ta:கல்லணை] Kallanai, was built by the Chola king[8] and is considered one of the oldest water-diversion or water-regulator structures in the world, which is still in use.
The Kallanai is a massive dam of unhewn stone, 329 metres (1,080 ft) long and 20 metres (60 ft) wide, across the main stream of the Kaveri.
The purpose of the dam was to divert the waters of the Kaveri across the fertile Delta region for irrigation via canals. The dam is still in excellent repair, and supplied a model to later engineers, including the Sir Arthur Cotton's 19th-century dam across the Kollidam, the major tributary of the Kaveri.
The area irrigated by the ancient irrigation network is about 1,000,000 acres (4,000 square kilometres).
Recently the Delta farmers of Tamil Nadu demanded the Tamil Nadu government honour the great Chola king Karikalan, who built the Kallanai.
DESCRIPTION SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA
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ILAIYARAJA the MAESTRO Original - by Artist Anikartick,Chennai,India
Ilaiyaraaja (born Gnanadesikan) is an Indian film composer who works in the Indian film Industry. His body of work has spanned across Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi and English language films. Regarded as one of the finest music composers in India,[1] Ilaiyaraaja is also an instrumentalist, conductor, singer, and a songwriter. To date, he has composed over 4500 songs and provided film scores for 1000 Indian films in various languages,[2][3] particularly being acclaimed for his background scoring.[4] His songs and background score played a very crucial role in the success of many films.[5][6]
Ilaiyaraaja has been a prominent composer of film music in the South Indian cinema since the late 1970s.[7] His works are mainly in Tamil, but has also scored music for numerous films in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi. Of late, he also composed for two Marathi films.[8] He integrated folk—in Tamil—and introduced western musical sensibilities into the South Indian musical mainstream.
A gold medalist in classical guitar from Trinity College of Music, London, in 1993, he organised a full symphony and thus became the first Asian to compose a full symphony performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London's Walthamstow Town Hall, which is yet to be released. In 2003, according to an international poll conducted by BBC, people from 155 countries voted his composition Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu from the 1991 film Thalapathi as fourth in the world's top 10 most popular songs of all time.[9] He was also nominated in the Best Indian album Music Awards category[10] at US based Just Plain Folks Music Organization, which is the largest grassroots music organization in the world, and stood third for his "Music Journey: Live in Italy".[10]
In the 2000s, he composed a variety of non-film music, including religious and devotional songs, an oratorio, and world music, while shifting his focus to Malayalam and Kannada films. He is usually referred to by the title Isaignani (English: Musical Genius), or as The Maestro.[11] As of 2013, he has won four Indian National Film Awards; three for Best Music Direction and one for Best Background Score[12] and is a recipient of Padma Bhushan, awarded by the Government of India. Ilaiyaraaja also received the NTR National Award in 2004.[13] In 2012 he received the Sangeet Natak Academi Award for his creative and experimental works in music field.[14]Popular world cinema portal Taste of Cinema placed Ilaiyaraja at the 9th position in its list of 25 greatest film composers in the cinema history.[15] In a poll conducted by CNN-IBN celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema in 2013, Ilaiyaraaja was voted the greatest music composer of India with a maximum of 49%.[16]
Contents
1 Early life and family
2 Early exposure to music
3 Session musician and film orchestrator
4 Film composer
4.1 Impact and musical style
5 Musical characteristics
6 Non-cinematic output
7 Notable works
8 Live performances
9 Discography
10 Awards
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links
Early life and family
Ilaiyaraaja was born as Gnanadesikan on 3 June 1943 in a Tamil family in Pannaipuram, Theni district, Tamil Nadu, India. When he joined the school his father changed his name as "Rajaiya" but his village people used to call him as "Raasayya".[17] Ilaiyaraaja joined Dhanraj Master as a student to learn musical instruments and the master renamed and called him as just "Raaja".[18] In his first movie Annakili, Tamil film producer Panchu Arunachalam added "Ilaiya" (Ilaiya means younger in Tamil language) as prefix in his name Raaja and he named as "Ilaiyaraaja" because in 1970's there was one more music director A. M. Rajah who was a popular one.
Ilaiyaraaja was married to Jeeva and the couple have three children—Karthik Raja, Yuvan Shankar Raja and Bhavatharini—all film composers and singers.[19][20] His wife Jeeva died on 31 October 2011.[21] Ilaiyaraaja has a brother Gangai Amaran, who is also a music director and lyricist in Tamil film industry.[22]
Early exposure to music
Ilaiyaraaja grew up in a rural area, exposed to a range of Tamil folk music.[23] At the age of 14, he joined a travelling musical troupe headed by his elder brother, Pavalar Varadarajan, and spent the next decade performing throughout South India. While working with the troupe, he penned his first composition, a musical adaptation of an elegy written by the Tamil poet laureate Kannadasan for Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister.[24] In 1968, Ilaiyaraaja began a music course with Professor Dhanraj in Madras (now Chennai),[18] which included an overview of Western classical music, compositional training in techniques such as counterpoint, and study in instrumental performance. Ilaiyaraaja specialized in classical guitar and had taken a course in it at the Trinity College of Music, London.[25]
Session musician and film orchestrator
In the 1970s in Chennai, Ilaiyaraaja played guitar in a band-for-hire, and worked as a session guitarist, keyboardist, and organist for film music composers and directors such as Salil Chowdhury from West Bengal.[26][27][28] After being hired as the musical assistant to Kannada film composer G. K. Venkatesh, he worked on 200 film projects, mostly in the Kannada language.[29] As G. K. Venkatesh's assistant, Ilaiyaraaja would orchestrate the melodic outlines developed by Venkatesh. During this period, Ilaiyaraaja also began writing his own scores. To hear his compositions, he would persuade Venkatesh's session musicians to play excerpts from his scores during their break times. Ilaiyaraaja would hire instruments from composer R. K. Shekhar, father of composer A. R. Rahman
Film composer
In 1975, film producer Panchu Arunachalam commissioned him to compose the songs and film score for a Tamil-language film called Annakkili ('The Parrot').[30] For the soundtrack, Ilaiyaraaja applied the techniques of modern popular film music orchestration to Tamil folk poetry and folk song melodies, which created a fusion of Western and Tamil idioms.[31][32] Ilaiyaraaja's use of Tamil music in his film scores injected new influence into the Indian film score milieu.[33] By the mid-1980s Ilaiyaraaja was gaining increasing stature as a film composer and music director in the South Indian film industry.[7] He has worked with Indian poets and lyricists such as Kannadasan, Vaali, Vairamuthu, O. N. V. Kurup, Sreekumaran Thampi, Veturi Sundararama Murthy, Aacharya Aatreya, Sirivennela Sitaramasastri, Chi. Udaya Shankar and Gulzar and is well known for his association with film makers such as Bharathiraja, K. Balachander, Mani Ratnam, Sathyan Anthikkad, Priyadarshan, Fazil, Balu Mahendra, Vamsy, K. Vishwanath, Singeetham Srinivasa Rao and R. Balki.
Impact and musical style
Ilaiyaraaja was one of the earliest Indian film composers to use Western classical music harmonies and string arrangements in Indian film music.[34] This allowed him to craft a rich tapestry of sounds for films, and his themes and background score gained notice and appreciation among Indian film audiences.[35] The range of expressive possibilities in Indian film music was broadened by Ilaiyaraaja's methodical approach to arranging, recording technique, and his drawing of ideas from a diversity of musical styles.[34]
According to musicologist P. Greene, Ilaiyaraaja's "deep understanding of so many different styles of music allowed him to create syncretic pieces of music combining very different musical idioms in unified, coherent musical statements".[7] Ilaiyaraaja has composed Indian film songs that amalgamated elements of genres such as Afro-tribal, bossa nova, dance music (e.g., disco), doo-wop, flamenco, acoustic guitar-propelled Western folk, funk, Indian classical, Indian folk/traditional, jazz, march, pathos, pop, psychedelia and rock and roll.
By virtue of this variety and his interfusion of Western, Indian folk and Carnatic elements, Ilaiyaraaja's compositions appeal to the Indian rural dweller for its rhythmic folk qualities, the Indian classical music enthusiast for the employment of Carnatic Ragas, and the urbanite for its modern, Western-music sound.[36] Ilaiyaraaja's sense of visualization for composing music is always to match up with the storyline of the running movie and possibly by doing so, he creates the best experience for the audience to feel the emotions flavored through his musical score. He mastered this art of blending music to the narration, which very few others managed to adapt themselves over a longer time.[6]
Although Ilaiyaraaja uses a range of complex compositional techniques, he often sketches out the basic melodic ideas for films in a very spontaneous fashion.[7][23] The Indian filmmaker Mani Ratnam illustrates:
Ilayaraja would look at the scene once, and immediately start giving notes to his assistants, as a bunch of musicians, hovering around him, would collect the notes for their instrument and go to their places. When the orchestra played out the notes, they would be perfect, not just in harmony but also in timing — the background score would commence exactly where it should and end at the exact place required. Ilayaraja is a genius, who could compose music with just one look at the scene.
Musical characteristics
Ilaiyaraaja's music is characterised by the use of an orchestration technique that is a synthesis of Western and Indian instruments and musical modes. He uses electronic music technology that integrates synthesizers, electric guitars and keyboards, drum machines, rhythm boxes and MIDI with large orchestras that feature traditional instruments such as the veena, venu, nadaswaram, dholak, mridangam and tabla as well as Western lead instruments such as saxophones and flutes.[7]
He uses catchy melodies fleshed out with a variety of chord progressions, beats and timbres. Ilaiyaraaja's songs typically have a musical form where vocal stanzas and choruses are interspersed with orchestral preludes and interludes. They often contain polyphonic melodies, where the lead vocals are interwoven with supporting melody lines sung by another voice or played by instruments./
The basslines in his songs tend to be melodically dynamic, rising and falling in a dramatic fashion. Polyrhythms are also apparent, particularly in songs with Indian folk or Carnatic influences. The melodic structure of his songs demand considerable vocal virtuosity, and have found expressive platform amongst some of India's respected vocalists and playback singers, such as S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. J. Yesudas, S. Janaki, Jayachandran, K. S. Chithra, Minmini, Jency, Swarnalatha, S. P. Sailaja, T. M. Soundararajan, P. Susheela, Sujatha, Malaysia Vasudevan, Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Hariharan, Udit Narayan, Sadhana Sargam and Shreya Ghoshal. Ilaiyaraaja has sung over 400 of his own compositions for films, and is recognisable by his stark, deep voice. He has penned the lyrics for some of his songs in Tamil and other languages.[37][38] Ilaiyaraaja's film scores are known both for the dramatic and evocative melodies, and for the more subtle background music that he uses to provide texture or mood for scenes in films such as Johnny (1980), Mouna Ragam (1986), Nayakan (1987), Geethanjali (1989), Guna (1991) Marupadiyum (1993).Notable works
Ilaiyaraaja's composition "Rakkama Kaiya Thattu", sung by SPB, Swarnalatha, Minmini in the movie Thalapathi (1991), was among the songs listed in a BBC World Top Ten music poll.[44] The soundtrack of My Dear Kuttichathan, the first stereoscopic 3D film made in India is composed by him. He composed the music for Nayagan (1987), an Indian film ranked by TIME Magazine as one of the all-time 100 best movies,[45] a number of India's official entries to the Oscars, such as Swathi Muthyam(1986),Nayagan(1987),Thevar Magan(1992), Anjali(1991), and Hey Ram (2000),[46] and for Indian art films such as Adoor Gopalakrishnan's FIPRESCI Prize-winning Nizhalkuthu ('The Shadow Kill') (2002).[47] Ilaiyaraaja has composed music for events such as the 1996 Miss World beauty pageant that was held in Bangalore, India, and for a documentary called India 24 Hours (1996).[48]
The Black Eyed Peas sampled the Ilaiyaraaja composition "Unakkum Ennakum" from Sri Raghavendra (1985), for the song "The Elephunk Theme" on Elephunk (2003).[49] The alternative artist M.I.A. sampled "Kaatukuyilu" from the film Thalapathi (1991) for her song "Bamboo Banga" on the album Kala (2007). As well, Gonjasufi sampled "Yeh Hawa Yeh Fiza" from the movie Sadma. His music compositions for the Hindi movie "Cheeni Kum" and Paa (3 December 2009) has won critical acclaim in several media reviews.
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]
Filming
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]
Filming
Thol. Thirumavalavan (born 17 August 1962), is a Dalit activist, Member of Parliament in 15th Lok Sabha.
Current President of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (Liberation Panthers Party), a Dalit political party in the state of Tamil Nadu in India.
For more Photos and details:
BALACHANDRAN PRABHAKARAN - Son of LTTE Leader PRABHAKARAN's Portrait drawing by Artist Anikartick,Chennai,Tamil Nadu,India
Location: Gautamapuri (near Ambas), Tirunelveli Dist, TN, India
The board reads the following:
Gautamapuri (Name of the village)
Liberation Tigers (Caste based Party in Tamilnadu)
Mr.Thirumavalavan (Leader of the party)
Paraiyar Association ( Paraiyar is a caste designated as 'scheduled caste' in tamilnadu )
Welcomes You !
Paraiyar is designated as 'Scheduled Caste' in Tamilnadu. They face discrimination in TN especially by a Caste Mukkulathor ( Thevar/Kallar/Maravar) designated as 'Most backward class' and there is a fierce rivalry and frequent clashes between them in South Tamilnadu. Mukkulathors are more dominant, affluent, and politically influential; hence Paraiyars faced the brunt of this rivalry. This discrimination led to the rise of quite a few leaders in Tamilnadu who mobilized the people of these SC communities and promised to protect their interests. Prominent among these leader are : 1) Dr.Krishnasamy 2) Mr.Thiramalavan. 3) Mr.John Pandian.
The good news is that in the last decade there were not many clashes between these castes but its an uneasy calm.
Gautamapuri village has a Paraiyar majority population and hence the above welcome board could exist without any damage.