Superstar Rajinikanth started the shoot of his Pa Ranjith directed Kaala, for son-in-law Dhanush’s Wunderbar Productions in Mumbai from Sunday, 28 May 2017. The film is being shot in actual locations in Mumbai, like Dharavi. The story is about a man from Tirunelveli who comes to Mumbai and unites the local Tamils, and later goes on to become a Robin Hood-like don. A source revealed that the story is very much Nayagan-meets-Kabali — and that it could be a launch pad for Rajinikanth’s political career.
Kaala has an impressive star cast — like National Award winning Tamil actor and director Samuthirakani, who plays Rajinikanth’s chief henchman. The female actors incude Huma Qureshi, Eashwari Rao and Anjali Patil. Ranjith has also roped in some of the finest Marathi actors like Nana Patekar, Sayaji Shinde, Ravi Kale, Pankaj Tripathi, Mikhi Mikija and south Indian supporting actors Sampath, Aruldas, Aravind Akash, ‘Vathikuchi’ Deepan, Ramesh Thilak, Manikandan, Velu and hundreds of other junior artistes for the movie.
On the technical side, Ranjith’s regular music director — Santhosh Narayanan — is in charge, while Murali G will be the cinematographer. National Award winning editor Sreekar Prasad has been roped in by Ranjith, replacing his regular editor PL Praveen. The buzz is that Kaala will be a quickie and the entire shoot will be wrapped up in 60 to 75 days in Mumbai, and on a huge set put up in Chennai.
The film is budgeted around Rs 150 crore, will be story-driven, and have only basic VFX and special effects. Please note Rajinikanth’s last release Kabali‘s theatrical and other rights and endorsements fetched a pre-release business of Rs 175 crore. As per trade sources, Wunderbar is trying to get somewhere around Rs 200 crore for Kaala, as trade inquiries have started.
