Indian was released on 9 May 1996 worldwide and became the highest-grossing Tamil film upon its release, beating the collections of Baashha until being surpassed by Padayappa.[2] The film was selected by India as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 1996, but was not nominated. The film went on to win three National Film Awards including that of Best Actor for Haasan, while his performance also saw him win at the Filmfare Awards and the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. A sequel titled Indian 2 is in production, with Haasan reprising the title role.
Plot
A series of killings take place at Avadi in the same pattern; stabbing by a knife and the victim becoming paralysed before being killed. The Chennai Police Department, led by CBI officer Krishnaswamy suspects several people, where they narrow down the killer by his age, which should be more than 70 years based on the writing style of a letter left behind by the killer while killing an officer in the government treasury. The officer is killed by an old man who is later known to be Senapathy, a veteran Indian freedom fighter and a member of the INA led by Subhas Chandra Bose, for threatening a poor old woman to bribe him to hand over compensation amount of ₹10,000 (US$130) given by the government as her husband was killed in a riot.
Chandrabose alias Chandru is a small-time broker stationed outside the RTO at Chennai. Chandru and his assistant Subbaiah aids people in bribing the right officials inside the RTO in getting permits and licenses. Subbaiah and an RTO official named Paneerselvam are engaged in regular conflicts with one another. At the same time, Aishwarya, Chandru's love interest and an avid animal rights activist, also comes into conflict with Sapna, a medical student and the daughter of an RTO official. Chandru attempts to win over Sapna and her family to secure a job as a brake inspector at the RTO. Aishwarya is irked by the fact that Sapna and her mother are exploiting Chandru's situation, getting him to do household chores. Sapna realises that Chandru loves Aishwarya and gives up her love. It is revealed that Chandru is Senapathy's son. They both had fallen out due to Senapathy's excessive insistence on honesty and righteousness, which Chandru considers to be irrelevant in the present times.
Meanwhile, Krishnaswamy manages to trace his way to Senapathy's house posing as a freedom fighter eligible for Swathantra Sainik Samman Pension Scheme. When Krishnaswamy tries to arrest him, Senapathy and his wife Amirthavalli, a puppeteer, escape with his expertise in Varma kalai. Later, Senapathy murders a corrupt doctor in front of live television audience as the doctor refused to treat Senapathy's daughter Kasturi, who was suffering from third-degree burns unless given a bribe, but Senapathy refused and thus led to her death. The public support surges for Senapathy as he exposes many corrupt individuals. Senapathy does not do any favours for Chandru either. Chandru, who managed to bribe a job as a brake inspector, takes a bribe and gives a safety certificate to a bus with faulty brakes, which eventually kills 40 school children, including the driver.
Chandru tries to frame the driver for drunk driving and manages to bribe a cop and a doctor on the same. However, Senapathy catches him in the act and is bent on giving Chandru the same punishment that he gives others i.e. death. Despite pleas from Amirthavalli and Aishwarya to spare Chandru's life, Senapathy heads for the airport where Chandru is attempting to flee to Mumbai. A chase culminates at the airport, where Senapathy tearfully kills his son and apparently dies in an explosion involving an aeroplane. While investigating recorded footage, Krishnaswamy discovers that Senapathy escaped moments before the jeep exploded. Senapathy calls Krishnaswamy from Hong Kong and says that he will be back whenever the need for his presence should arise.
Sydney Harbour Bridge is seen in the song "Telephone Manipol"
Soon after the release of Gentleman (1993), Shankar narrated a script titled Periya Manushan to actor Rajinikanth, but the pair did not end up collaborating.[3] He then considered making the film in Telugu with Rajasekhar in a leading role, alongside either Nagarjuna or Venkatesh, but the plans did not materialise. In June 1995, producer A. M. Rathnam signed on Shankar to make the venture featuring leading actor Kamal Haasan in the lead role. The film, retitled as Indian, was initially reported to be loosely based on the life of prominent Indian freedom fighter, Subhas Chandra Bose.[4]
Shankar tried to cast Aishwarya Rai to make her debut and portray the leading female role. Her commitment to her advertisement agency until October 1995 meant that she was unavailable to sign the film.[4] Subsequently, Sridevi was selected as the lead heroine despite of her packed shooting schedule in Bollywood films. The producers wanted Radhika to play the pair of the older Kamal Haasan in the film, but her television commitments meant that she was unable to sign a contract. Urvashi's sister subsequently replaced her, only for Shankar to throw her out for missing a day's schedule to attend her wedding. The role was finally handed to Sukanya, who had previously appeared alongside Kamal Haasan in Mahanadhi.[4] Bollywood actress Urmila Matondkar was signed to play a role in the film after the producers were impressed with her performance and the success of her 1995 Hindi film, Rangeela. Nassar was chosen to portray an important character in the film; however, as he was busy with other films, he could not accept the offer. Instead, he provided a voice for the Malayalam character actor Nedumudi Venu, whom Shankar signed on to play the role. The producers engaged Hollywood make-up artists Michael Westmore and Michael Jones to work on the designs for the senior Kamal Haasan's and Sukanya's look in the film.[5]
For production work, Shankar visited Las Vegas to learn about new technology and purchased cameras for production. Furthermore, the director visited Australia alongside cinematographer Jeeva and music director A. R. Rahman to location hunt and to compose tunes.[4] The film's unit was given strict orders to maintain privacy, with Hindi actor Jackie Shroff being notably turned away from visiting the shooting spot. A song for the film was shot at Prasad Studios featuring Haasan and Matondkar alongside 70 Bombay models.[6] This led to a protest from the Cine Dancers Union who argued that Tamil dancers should have been utilised instead, with Shankar opting to pay them off to avoid further hassle. Another duet between Kamal Haasan and Sridevi was shot near the Sydney Opera House in Sydney and Canberra for fifteen days.[7] A flashback song was canned with four hundred dancers and a thousand extras at Gingee with Kamal Haasan and Sukanya, while another song featured shooting in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.[4][5] The flashback sequences, set during pre-Independent India, were in black-and-white.[8] Graphic designer Venky noted that Indian was his most difficult project to date (in 1997) with a scene constructed to feature Kamal Haasan's character alongside Subhas Chandra Bose. Venky had to remove blemishes on the film reel of Bose provided by the Film Division's archive before merging Haasan on to the shot to make it appear that the pair were marching in tandem.[9]
Indian was the most expensive Indian film at the time. According to an estimate by critic G. Dhananjayan, the production budget was ₹8 crores (worth ₹96 crores in 2021 prices).[10]Rediff.com however estimated budget to be ₹15 crore.[11][12] The music video for "Akadanu Naanga" directed by Padam Kumar and choreographed by Vaibhavi Merchant, cost ₹1.5 crore[13]
The soundtrack album includes five tracks composed by A. R. Rahman,[14] and was released in 1996 by Pyramid. The soundtrack was also released in Hindi as Hindustani by TIPS and in Telugu as Bharateeyudu by T-Series.[15] The lyrics were written by Vaali and Vairamuthu for the original version, P. K. Mishra for Hindustani and Bhuvanachandra for Bharateeyudu.
The Tamil soundtrack of Indian was a major success, having sold about 600,000 records within days of release.[16] The Hindi soundtrack, called Hindustani, sold a further 1.8million units,[17] bringing total sales to at least 2.4million units.
Indian was released worldwide on 9 May 1996 and opened to predominantly positive reviews from critics.[18] Prior to the release of the film, the team also planned a Hindi version of the film. It was partially reshot in Hindi as Hindustani with Aruna Irani in place of Manorama. The Hindi version also did well after its release on 23 August 1996.[19] The film was also dubbed in Telugu as Bharathyeedu and in Malayalam under the same title. In 2015, the Hindi version Hindustani was screened at the Habitat Film Festival.[20]
Reception
Box office
The film became an Industry hit at the box office by breaking the record for a Tamil film and earning over ₹50 crore in India and overseas.[10] The film ran to packed houses for several months in Tamil Nadu. Indian was also dubbed into Telugu as Bharatheeyudu and in Hindi as Hindustani. Both Telugu and Hindi dubbed versions also became a major commercial success.
Critical response
Nirupama Subramanian from India Today praised Shankar's script, noting that "with the right mix of pop patriotism, anti-establishment diatribes and other commercial cinema ingredients, Shankar's latest creation has south India applauding" before adding that "the real triumph of the film is the effective make-over that believably transforms the actors".[21] Tharamani of Kalki praised for romance in dignified manner, for narrating flashback in black-and-white and keeping the beauty shining and budding everywhere without being blinded but panned the film for giving a wrong message of justifying the murders.[22]The Hindu wrote, "Shankar establishes himself as one who thinks big and executes what his mind has conceived in a lavish style on the screen be it the dance sequences or action and thrills the Tamil viewers have not witnessed before". The critic added, "Kamal is simply superb as Senapathy, his thick voice and the dhoti-jubba attire adding to his portrayal. As Chandru he underplays his part".[23]
In September 2017, a sequel Indian 2 was announced jointly by Shankar and Haasan, with Dil Raju handling production.[30] The following month, Raju left the film which was then picked up by Lyca Productions.[31] The film has Haasan reprising his role as Senapathy. Production began in January 2019,[32] but progressed slowly for over four years.[33]
