Kamal Haasan's unrealized projects
During his long career, Indian film actor-director Kamal Haasan has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his acting commitments or direction.
[15] In 2020, K. Bhagyaraj stated that the film was stalled because Amitabh Bachchan had felt that the audiences would praise Kamal Haasan's portrayal rather than his, and subsequently asked to cancel the project.
[18][19][20] Ratnam revealed that he worked on a first draft of the film alongside Kamal Haasan, who had bought the rights of the novel from M. G. Ramachandran, but the pair shelved their plan as the project did not make financial sense at the time.
[24] In the early 1990s, Gangai Amaran agreed terms to direct a film titled Athi Veerapandiyan starring Kamal Haasan in the lead role.
The three decide to gang up against him to teach a lesson, but a strange accident complicates things when the boss lands in a hospital and the three women end up with the dead body of a terrorist, played by Kamal Haasan.
[39] Kamal Haasan immediately agreed at the prospect and felt that the story had all the potential of a good historical film, being appealed to by the elevation from the nadir to the top of Khan's life.
[39] The producers and Kamal Haasan managed to rope in Queen Elizabeth II to appear as the chief guest at the launch of the project which took place in the MGR Film City on 16 October 1997.
[41] Official filming began several months later in Velangudi on 10 August 1998 with a scene of where a companion of the lead character, played by Kamal Haasan, is hanged prompting a brief altercation.
[49] Through the project, he had aimed to reprise his character of the Palakkad Brahmin cook Kameshwaran from Michael Madana Kama Rajan (1990) and place him in funny situations when he visits London.
[68][69] In late 2002, Kamal Haasan discussed plans of making a project titled Moo, which would be co-directed by Mani Ratnam and Singeetam Srinivasa Rao.
Inspired to continue ahead with the idea, Kamal Haasan proceeded to make a different film, Virumaandi (2004), which focused on the interview of two prison inmates.
[70] In late 2012, Hollywood producer Barrie Osborne expressed his interest in making Moo as an English film in association with Kamal Haasan, who would direct the project and feature in the lead role.
[86] As the opportunity to remake Lage Raho Munna Bhai was passed upon, Saran and Kamal Haasan agreed to work on another project under the director's own studio, Gemini Productions.
Kamal Haasan was paid an advance of two crore rupees for the project, but owing to financial issues, Saran decided to handover the production duties to Ayngaran International.
Production house Pyramid Saimira along with Haasan's company Raaj Kamal Films International were set to produce the venture, and work began in late 2007.
Kamal Haasan subsequently moved on to begin work on Unnaipol Oruvan (2009), and later filed a legal complaint against Pyramid Saimira for loss of earnings.
During the period, Kamal Haasan also pitched the idea of financing the film to Udhayanidhi Stalin of Red Giant Movies, who did not take up the offer citing that he felt the script was too political.
[101][102] In November 2010, Kamal Haasan revealed that he was busy writing the final draft of the film and would look to start production by March 2011 with American producers.
The media reported that the film would be produced by Aascar Ravichandran, with actors Mohanlal, Ajith Kumar, Ravi Teja and Katrina Kaif also in the cast, though this later proved to be untrue.
[104][105] Reports later in February 2012, suggested that Kamal Haasan had asked Shankar to direct the film, with Jackie Chan, Salman Khan, Prabhas and Asin amongst others speculated to be a part of the project.
[108] After three years of inactivity, in June 2015, Kamal Haasan announced that he was reviving the film and that Saif Ali Khan would feature alongside him in a leading role.
Following a further period of quiet, where Kamal Haasan also revealed that he would stop acting, it was announced that composer A. R. Rahman and studio Lyca Productions became attached to the project in July 2019.
The film was written by Malayalam scriptwriter, M. T. Vasudevan Nair and was set to tell the tale of a Samurai warrior trying to conquer the ancient Indian martial art of Kalaripayattu.
[116] Following the cancellation of Marmayogi and 19 Steps, Kamal Haasan was keen to work on a historical film with a similar theme, with the project also referred to in the media as 500 BC.
Titled Yavarum Kelir, Kamal Haasan had hoped to complete the comedy drama film before beginning work on his more time-consuming project, Buddham Sharanam, by Mysskin.
After initial discussions with Sridevi failed to materialise, Rajeev Kumar cast Amala Akkineni and Zarina Wahab in pivotal roles and announced that the film would be shot entirely across the United States, with schedules in New York and Georgia.
[150] During the period of the production delay, in November 2016, Kamal Haasan split with his long time partner Gautami, who had also worked in the project as a costume designer.
[158][159] The project created attention when political leader K. Krishnasamy of the Puthiya Tamilagam party objected to the film being titled as Thevar Magan 2, citing the risk of caste-based violence.
[160] By the end of 2018, the future of the project was put into question after Kamal Haasan stated his final film could be Indian 2 for Lyca Productions before moving on to be a full-time politician.
[170] Gautham Vasudev Menon confirmed that he was working on a sequel to his action-thriller Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu (2006) in March 2020, and that he was in discussions with Kamal Haasan to reprise the lead character of Raghavan.
