Rajkumar Periasamy on Sivakarthikeyan’s transformation for ‘Amaran’

All about Sivakarthikeyan and Sai Pallavi’s ‘Amaran’, a film based on Major Mukund Varadarajan's life

A video of an armyman teaching the popular Tamil poet Subramania Bharati’s song ‘Achamillai Achamillai’ to his three-year-old daughter piqued Rajkumar Periasamy’s curiosity, way back in 2014.

An aspiring filmmaker then, Rajkumar wanted to know more about this man. The result of that curiosity is Amaran, the film starring Sivakarthikeyan that is releasing this Deepavali.

Amaran is based on Major Mukund Varadarajan’s journey; the Indian Army officer was killed during counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir while leading his 44 Rashtriya Rifles unit, and awarded the Ashok Chakra, the nation’s highest gallantry award during peace time, posthumously. “He (Mukund) saw it as a duty to teach the patriotic song to his daughter, without knowing the fate that awaited him. It sums up the values he had,” Rajkumar says.

For many, Major Mukund Varadarajan was the inspiring Indian hero who was killed in action; Amaran features that, but it also gives us a peek into the kind of man he was and the student life he had at Madras Christian College, where he also met his future partner, Indhu Rebecca Varghese (played by Sai Pallavi). “Cinema audiences crave larger-than-life scenes, and the life of army men is embedded with larger-than-life moments. Mukund the soldier stems from Mukund the man himself,” adds Rajkumar.

Off to Kashmir

Rajkumar, who directed Rangoon in 2017, went to Kamal Haasan with the story of Major Mukund, and the latter was convinced that this was a story that needed to be told on the big screen. Kamal has produced Amaran. “When I pitched the idea to Kamal Haasan, he was so moved that he remarked: “I wish I could have given 30 years from my life to this boy,” recalls Rajkumar, who has also worked closely with Kamal Haasan for Tamil reality show Bigg Boss.

They then roped in Sivakarthikeyan for the lead role. “He respects the armed forces, and I knew he would respect the story. He was ready to transform himself for this role. I see Amaran as not your regular Sivakarthikeyan film; it will be an important transition in his career.”