Kamal & Rajini – A new battle of grandeur

With Dasavatharam all set to hit the marquee in the month of April 2008, announcement on Kamal’s next project has snuck its way to the media. Going by the details of it, looks like Kamal is all set for another mammoth venture right after his ten-role act in Dasavatharam.

Titled Marmayogi, the movie is said to be produced by renowned Hollywood production house Walt Disney pictures for a whopping budget of Rs. 100 crores – not quite known to Tamil cinema yet. Walt Disney has roped in Bharath Bala of Vande Matharam fame for the production management of Marmayogi.

It’s a clash which has been going on for decades, but now it seems like the battle of grandeur and production scale between two superstars of Tamil film industry – Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, is getting to its peak. When Rajinikanth signed up a 60 crore project Sivaji, Kamal finalized the even bigger Dasavatharam. Now with the former again coming up with the announcement of Robot, touted to be financially the biggest project to be conceived in Indian film industry, jointly produced by Eros International and Ayangaran, the latter takes his dream to the next level. Perhaps the celluloid greats are really thinking bigger and higher.

Coming back to Marmayogi, the movie will be produced in four Indian languages - Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and Telugu - simultaneously. Although the rest of the cast are being finalized, credible sources strongly suggest that Asin stands a bright chance to bag the role of Kamal’s lead lady. Hemamalini, who was last seen in Kamal’s Hey Ram, is also rumored to be a part of the venture.

Earlier, Kamal tantalized his fans with only a teaser trailer of his dream venture Marudanayagam, an epic tale of one of the lesser known freedom fighters. Kamal even screened the trailer to the Queen of England during her Indian visit. However, for reasons ranging from budget to time consuming research, Marudanayagam could not take off and was eventually shelved. Now, Marmayogi, as the names suggests, is expected to have a historical backdrop and has hence raised the bar among his fans.

Dasavatharam is in its final stage of production and Kamal will participate in the initial discussions of Marmayogi after Dasavatharam is wrapped up completely.

So will Marmayogi serve enough Marudanayagam-fodder to eager Kamal fans? Watch this space for more updates.