Kamal Haasan at 72: Lord of the Rings producer, Kate Winslet & Hollywood film that never happened

However, he did not. Here is what happened instead.

Marudhanayagam: The one that had a Queen

The most famous of Kamal Haasan’s unrealised international projects is Marudhanayagam, a historical epic based on the life of Marudhanayagam Pillai, also known as Muhammad Yusuf Khan, an 18th-century military commander in the Madras Presidency who rose from sepoy to commandant.

Also Read: Why Kamal Haasan’s Rs 100 crore film about a warrior ‘born a Hindu, converted to Islam and married a Christian woman’ never materialised

Kamal Haasan and novelist Sujatha worked on the screenplay, drawing from Samuel Charles Hill’s biography of Khan, Tamil folk ballads and historical records. The script was conceived in English, Tamil and French, and the film was planned as an Indian-British-French co-production. It was, by design, an international project from the start, intended to reach audiences beyond India.

The scale of the ambition was visible from the beginning. In April 1997, Kamal confirmed the project as what was expected to be the most expensive Indian film ever made, with a budget of approximately Rs 100 crore. There were reports that Kate Winslet was offered the lead female role of Marsha but declined, prompting the team to search for other international actresses.

Queen Elizabeth II, visiting India during the making of this film and reportedly keen to see an Indian film set, attended the inauguration at MGR Film City in Chennai. According to a report from Times of India in 1997, She spent 20 minutes on the sets and was shown a short battle sequence that had had reportedly cost Rs 1.5 crore to shoot. She also met veteran actors including Sivaji Ganesan. The film subsequently ran into trouble after the British company that was co-producing it backed out. Work stalled in 1998, and despite attempts to revive it, the film never resumed production.

Kamal Hassan in Marudhanayagam. (Express archive photo)

Kamal has spoken about reviving Marudhanayagam periodically over the past 27 years. In 2020, during an Instagram Live session, he acknowledged that the script would need to be rewritten for his age, as the protagonist was originally written as a 40-year-old.

The one with the Lord of the Rings producer

In June 2012, at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) weekend in Singapore, Kamal Haasan announced a collaboration with Barrie M. Osborne, the Academy Award-winning producer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

At that event, Osborne, who had seen a screening of Vishwaroopam and was reportedly deeply impressed, described Kamal’s knowledge of history, literature and films as “encyclopedic”. The two announced plans for an international project that would focus on Indian history and culture “on a Hollywood template”. Osborne told the press that Kamal had presented an idea so compelling he could not resist working with him.

Also Read: Sandiyar is back: Kamal Haasan reclaims the title he was forced to drop 23 years ago

The project was eventually linked to Moo, a title Kamal had discussed earlier as a potential collaboration between himself, Mani Ratnam and Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. The original concept was inspired by the Rashomon effect, with three different interpretations of the same incident told by three directors.

A decade later, following his collaboration announcement with Osborne, the idea of an international film resurfaced. In February 2013, reports linked the proposed English-language project to Moo, which was also referred to as Triple Impact.

It never happened because the project failed to develop. In 2017, there were reports that the film was still “under consideration,” but no further progress was ever announced.

The English-language script with American writers

In a 2016 interview at Wharton India Economic Forum, Kamal spoke about writing a script in English with American collaborators, including his friend Charles Oliver. “We are writing a script with American writers,” he said. “Hopefully, films like that would happen more often instead of just talking about it.” No English-language film with American writers has materialised from those discussions.

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If any Kamal Haasan film could have served as a Hollywood calling card, it was Vishwaroopam (2013). Co-written by Kamal with Chakri Toleti and Atul Tiwari, the spy thriller was shot partly in the United States, featured sequences in English, dealt with international terrorism and was technically ambitious.

Kamal Haasan himself noted the comparison in interviews with Wharton India Economic Forum: “If you want to pull off a film like that in Hollywood, it will cost you $20 million, $25 million. We’ve done it at half the price and the quality is not bad at all.”

The film was released internationally and earned attention for its production values and Kamal’s performance. It did not, however, lead to a Hollywood project. Vishwaroopam eventually received a sequel in 2018, but the proposed Hollywood collaboration with Barrie Osborne remained unrealised.

Also Read: ‘Men are jealous of my life’: When Kamal Haasan hit back at people’s obsession with his life

What remains

Kamal Haasan turns 72 today. He has appeared in more than 230 films. Seven of them were submitted as India’s Oscar entry. One of them is on Time magazine’s all-time greatest list. He has won three National Awards for Best Actor and received some of Indian cinema’s highest honours. He has been called a cinema encyclopaedia by the producer of The Lord of the Rings. Queen Elizabeth II attended the launch of his film. Kate Winslet was reportedly offered a role in it.

And he has never made a Hollywood film. Kamal Haasan has consistently thought beyond the boundaries of Indian cinema, pursuing projects with international ambitions. The world recognised his talent and his vision. But it never got to see what he could have achieved with a Hollywood film.