An idea that intrigued Kamal Haasan seven years ago grew within him, prompting him to write a story. The story grew larger than he expected it to be. “I first had to convince myself that such an idea will lend itself to a feature film. Then I sounded out the idea to my friends, had several discussions and the result was Vishwaroopam,” said Kamal Haasan, speaking to us soon after the unveiling the promos of his much-awaited magnum opus in Singapore.
Vishwaroopam (in Tamil and Telugu) and Vishwaroop (in Hindi) is the most expensive film in Kamal Haasan's career. Without disclosing the details of the budget, Kamal Haasan stated, “It's amazing how a screen writer's mind works when he/she stumbles upon certain news reports. I felt this film had the potential to reach out nationally and internationally, which is why we didn't want to hesitate to spend to make it the way we intended to.”
Set in the US, in 2012, the film traces the story of Kathak exponent Vishwanath alias Wiz (Kamal Haasan), who is married to Nirupama (Pooja Kumar). It's a marriage of convenience that Nirupama finds tough to deal with after three years. She wants to opt out of the arranged marriage and even hires a detective to pursue Vishwanath. But look closer at the promo and we know that the film is much more than a story about a couple. You are intrigued to know if Kamal Haasan's character has shades of grey and if the film presents a fresh take on international relations between US and the other nations. Kamal Haasan remains evasive and says, “At this point, I don't want to talk too much about the premise of the film.”
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Years after Sagara Sangamam ( Salangai Oli in Tamil), Kamal Haasan will get to showcase his skills as a classical dancer. “The style of Kathak and Bharatanatyam I did in Sagara Sangamam was different. For this film, I took lessons from Pandit Birju Maharaj. I've admired Panditji's grace and method. I learnt the sequences from him and discussed those thodis or jathis with Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy and they came up with brilliant music,” said Kamal. The Hindi lyrics have been penned by Javed Akhtar, while Vairamuthu has done the honours in Tamil and Vennelakanti in Telugu. Gautami took care of the costume designing.
The visual effects of the film were talked about soon after the promos. Madhusudhanan, who has previously supervised the visual effects for
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Vishwaroopam will release later this year.