Chandramukhi

Chandramukhi (2005)

சந்திரமுகி

RAA RAA

Creepy happenings in an abandoned mansion are attributed to the ghost of an ancient courtesan, back for revenge.

Date of release
2005-04-14
TMDB
6.9 / 10 (79)
Runtime
2h 44m
Genres
Comedy, Horror, Drama
Director
P. Vasu
Collection
Chandramukhi Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Manichitrathazhu
  • Filmed in: Turkey

Chandramukhi is a 2005 Indian Tamil-language comedy horror film written and directed by P. Vasu. It is a remake of Vasu's Kannada film Apthamitra (2004) which itself was based on the Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu (1993). The film stars Rajinikanth, Prabhu and Jyothika in the leads, along with an ensemble supporting cast, including Vadivelu, Nayanthara, Nassar and Sheela. It revolves around a woman who has dissociative identity disorder that affects a family, and a psychiatrist who intends to solve the case while risking his life.

Production

During a success meet for Mannan (1992), Rajinikanth announced that he would act in Sivaji Productions' 50th film, which would eventually become Chandramukhi. In September 2004, Rajinikanth congratulated P. Vasu on the success of his Kannada film Apthamitra (2004) and was impressed with the film's screenplay.

Ramkumar telephoned Vasu, who was offering worship in a temple in Guruvayur at that time, informing him of Rajinikanth's wish to do Apthamitra in Tamil under his direction. Vasu reworked the script he wrote for Apthamitra to suit Rajinikanth's style of acting. The film dealt mainly with the concept of dissociative identity disorder, commonly known as "multiple personality disorder" (MPD) or "split personality disorder".

Thota Tharani was the film's art director, and also designed the costumes. Regarding the designing of the Vettaiyapuram palace, he watched both Apthamitra and its source Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu (1993) to get the basic idea of the film's plot. Vasu wanted Tharani to make the sets more colourful and grand and did not want the realistic look of the original film.

Rajinikanth played the roles of Dr. Saravanan and King Vettaiyan. He sported a wig for his role. Both Rajinikanth and Vasu discussed every scene featuring the former and added necessary inputs before they were shot. Rajinikanth appears in the beginning of the film unlike Manichitrathazhu, where the same character, played by Mohanlal, appears in the middle of the film.

For the roles of Ganga and Chandramukhi, Simran was initially cast. She ultimately refused to do the project, as her role required a lot of dancing and cited her pregnancy at that time as another reason for her refusal. Aishwarya Rai was later offered the role but declined. Sadha and Reema Sen were also considered as replacements. The role finally went to Jyothika, who allotted 50 days of her schedule.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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