Marmayogi (2010 film)

Marmayogi is a forthcoming bilingual Hindi-Tamil period film, set in the 7th century to be directed by Kamal Haasan, who with Marmayogi, will direct his fourth feature film. Kamal Haasan also acts in the lead role, whilst Hema Malini also plays a role in the film. The film, which is produced jointly by Pyramid Saimira and Haasan's Rajkamal International, has A. R. Rahman as the music composer. The film, announced with a budget of 120 crore Indian rupees, is set to contest with Rajnikanth's recently announced film, Endhiran, in a race to be India's most expensive film to date.

Development
Marmayogi was first brought up after the release of Aalavandhan in 2001, however nothing proceded. After a four year sabbatical from directing films since Virumaandi in 2004, Kamal Haasan announced Marmayogi as his next project after the completion of his film, Dasavatharam. Despite early indications in January 2008 that Walt Disney Productions will make their debut by making a full feature Indian film, co-producing Marmayogi with Reliance Adlabs and Bharat Bala Productions, the news proved to be false. An official announcement was released by the team clarifying that Pyramid Saimira along with Haasan's company Rajkamal International were set to produce the venture. The film is likely to be released in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

The film is believed to be based on the 1886 novel Vendetta: The Story of One Forgotten by Marie Corelli, however others have claimed that it is a remake of the 1951 movie of the same name starring M. G. Ramachandran, that film was widely known for being the first Adult rated movie in Tamil cinema. Another source claimed that "it is a children's film and the story revolves around how Kamal takes a group of people on a journey". Kamal Haasan is location hunting for the film, searching for areas in the United States as well.

Early indications also promise a box-office battle between Marmayogi and another magnum opus movie announced in early 2008, Robot, starring the other major star of Tamil films, Rajnikanth, both of the films have announced their budget as 120 crore rupees each respectively.

Casting
Following the announcement of the project, it is expected that it could be up to six months before the official confirmation of artistes, apart from Kamal Hassan and A. R. Rahman in the film is finalized. Hema Malini was signed up to the project, which will be her second Tamil film after Hey Ram which also starred by Kamal Hassan. Other major actresses such as Kajol Devgan, Deepika Padukone , Mallika Sherawat, Shriya Saran , Asin Thottumkal , Trisha Krishnan and Padmapriya

have been approached to take the lead role, while Siddharth Narayan and Venkatesh have also been approached to portray other roles in the film.

Moreover, Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha have been approached to play cameos in the film as a married couple.