Mahanati, Nadigaiyar Thilagam in Tamil, is based on the life of legendary actor Savitri, who ruled the hearts of millions of fans for nearly three decades and inspired generations of female actors. Director Nag Ashwin said that the biopic “is a celebration of Savitri’s life.”
“Savitri had immense, diverse talent, a director, playback singer, producer and someone who loved car racing. As a race-car driver, she won trophies. There are so many such beautiful facets of this actor she deserves to be reminisced today,” noted the director in a statement.
Actor Keerthy Suresh has played the coveted role of Savitri in the biopic and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. “Complementing our choice of Keerthy Suresh for the titular role of Savitri, Vijaya Chamundeswari had expressed it is a huge challenge to play this big role on her young shoulders, I found many qualities in Keerthy that kind of made me feel yes, she can pull it off,” said producer Priyanka Dutt of Swapna Cinema.
“There were so many instances on the set that made everyone believe that Keerthy had mannerisms that bore striking similarities to Savitri’s,” she recalled. She said putting this project on the life of the legendary actor was not easy. ” It was indeed a massive task for us, in this film we have done our best to distill Savitri’s life story into two hours of quality entertainment,” she said.
Mahanati has an ensemble cast, including Dulquer Salmaan, who plays the role Gemini Ganesan. Samantha Akkineni, and Vijay Devarakonda play the roles of journalists, who trace the life of Savitri as part of their assignment.
Mahanati is scheduled to release on May 9.
