Raavanan

Story:

Raavanan is a Tamil-language epic action-adventure film directed, co-written, and co-produced by Mani Ratnam. The film stars Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Prithviraj Sukumaran, with a supporting cast that includes Karthik, Prabhu, and Priyamani. This film marked Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s return to Tamil cinema after a decade, her last Tamil film being Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000).

The story is inspired by the epic Ramayana and centers on a relentless cop, Dev Prakash Subramaniam, who is on a mission to capture a tribal leader-turned-naxalite named Veeraiya after he kidnaps Dev’s wife, Raagini. Raagini, who suffers from Stockholm syndrome, gradually develops feelings for Veeraiya upon understanding his motives.

Raavanan was announced in February 2008, filming commenced shortly after the announcement, taking place in various locations. The music was composed by A. R. Rahman, lyrics by Vairamuthu, cinematography by V. Manikandan and Santhosh Sivan, and editing by A. Sreekar Prasad.

The film was simultaneously made in Hindi as Raavan, with Abhishek Bachchan playing Vikram’s role and the antagonist, Vikram taking on Prithviraj’s role as the protagonist, and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan reprising her role in both versions. Raavanan was also dubbed in Telugu as Villain. All three versions were released worldwide on 18 June 2010. Additionally, it was later remade into Bengali in 2011 as Tiger Number One, starring Shakib Khan, Sahara, and Amit Hasan.