Kamal Haasan confirms Indian 2 may release only in 2020; Thevar Magan 2 also in the pipeline for the actor

Multifaceted actor turned politician Kamal Haasan has confirmed that on the film front, he has only scheduled two films — Indian 2 and Thevar Magan 2. “I don’t know whether to reveal this information right here but I have agreed to do two films—Thevar Magan 2 and Indian 2”, said Kamal Haasan in his recent interaction with Thanthi TV. When asked whether both the films will hit the screens on 2019, Kamal said “I’m not sure because as per our schedule, one film is taking more time. I also got a lot of jobs to do so unable to accept more films". [caption id=“attachment_4645151” align=“alignnone” width=“875”]  File image of Kamal Haasan.[/caption] As reported by _Firstpost_ earlier, Indian 2 will be bankrolled by Lyca Productions of 2.0 fame and the film’s director Shankar has finalised the locations in Thailand, interior locales of Andhra and Telangana for the film. Ravi Varman of Barfi! fame has been confirmed to handle cinematography for Indian 2 and Anirudh Ravichander will be composing the music. Our sources had previously revealed that Indian 2 will only release in 2020 and Kamal’s statement also confirms the same. In an interview to Rajeev Masand, Shankar said: “I’m not doing Indian 2 for the namesake, a lot of things happened around us have disturbed me in the last seven to ten years and it will be discussed in the sequel. Though I myself done several films on this genre and other filmmakers have also made many vigilante movies, Indian 2 will be different. After wrapping up every film, I had always thought about Indian 2 but it didn’t materialise because of the lack of fresh elements. Now, the script has shaped out really well”. The shoot of Indian 2 will commence in December this year and Shankar has retained some of the actors from the first part including popular Malayalam actor Nedumudi Venu who played the CBI officer. Sources say that Kamal Haasan has scheduled his dates in such a way that he will be simultaneously shooting for Indian 2 and Thevar Magan 2. While fans of Kamal Haasan are thrilled about both the films, a section feels that the latter will bring unnecessary caste colour to the actor who is also projecting himself as a secular politician. Though Thevar Magan was a classic and won five National Awards, the film created a controversy for glorifying Thevar community. In Thevar Magan, Kamal played Sakthivel, foreign returned son of the village head Periya Thevar (played by the legendary Sivaji Ganesan). The film is all about how Chinna Thevar and his son Maya Thevar (Nassar) separate a village into two groups within the same community due to their enmity with Periya Thevar and his immediate successor Sakthivel. Thevar Magan was India’s official entry to Academy awards for Best Foreign Language Film for the year 1992. The film was also remade in Hindi by Priyadarshan as Virasat featuring Anil Kapoor, Tabu, Amrish Puri, and Milind Gunaji in the lead. Written and produced by Kamal Haasan himself, Malayalam filmmaker Bharathan directed Thevar Magan for which Ilaiyaraaja composed music and PC Sreeram cranked the camera. The sequel will be produced by Kamal Haasan and he has also penned the script. Buzz is that Kamal has chosen Thevar Magan sequel to portray how a modern village can be formed against all the political hurdles. Creating model villages is one of the important mottoes of Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam so he is planning to use Thevar Magan 2 to spread the importance of the development in rural areas and there won’t be any scenes glorifying any community. “In the first part itself, Shaktivel is against caste system and believes in equality. The thing is some opportunists played with the title for their political gains”, said a source close to Kamal Haasan. “I will be using all the platforms to talk about people’s politics. When the Government publicizes themselves with advertisements in theaters, I don’t see anything wrong in using my films to spread my political ideologies”, said Kamal Haasan earlier when reporters asked him about including his party anthem in theaters which screened Vishwaroopam 2 across Tamil Nadu.