Indian (1996 film)

Indian is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language vigilante action film directed by S. Shankar, who wrote the script with dialogues by Sujatha, and produced by A. M. Rathnam. The film stars Kamal Haasan in dual roles, alongside Manisha Koirala, Urmila Matondkar, Sukanya, Manorama, Goundamani, Senthil, Nedumudi Venu, Kasthuri, Nizhalgal Ravi and Ajay Rathnam. It is the first instalment in the Indian film series. The music was composed by A. R. Rahman, while cinematography and editing were handled by Jeeva and B. Lenin-V. T. Vijayan. In the film, Senapathy, a retired freedom fighter rebels against corruption in India, which puts him in conflict with his son Chandru, who lives by corruption.
Indian was released on 9 May 1996 worldwide and became the highest-grossing Tamil film upon release. It 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 won three National Film Awards, including Best Actor (Kamal Haasan), two South Filmfare Awards and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. It was partially reshot in Hindi as Hindustani with Manorama being replaced by Aruna Irani and released on 23 August 1996. A sequel titled Indian 2 was released in 2024 and a third film Indian 3 is in production.
A series of killings takes place at Avadi in the same pattern within a few months; stabbing by a knife and the victim becoming paralysed before dying. The Chennai Police Department in liaison with the CBI form a joint team led by Krishnaswamy to nab the killer. They scrutinise the evidences and narrow down the killer by his age, which should be more than 70 based on the writing style of a letter left behind by the killer while killing an officer in the government treasury. The old man is later revealed to be Senapathy, a retired Indian freedom fighter and a member of Indian National Army led by Subhas Chandra Bose, for threatening a poor old woman to bribe him to hand over compensation amount of ₹10,000 (equivalent to ₹55,000 or US$640 in 2023) given by the government as her husband was killed in a riot.
Chandrabose "Chandru", a small-time broker stationed outside the Regional Transport Office at Chennai, and his assistant Subbaiah aid people in bribing the right officials inside the RTO in getting permits and licenses. At the same time Chandru's girlfriend Aishwarya, an animal rights activist, also comes into conflict with Sapna, the daughter of Secretary of Transportation. Chandru attempts to win over Sapna and her family to secure a job as a brake inspector at the same RTO. Aishwarya is irked by the fact that Sapna and her mother are exploiting Chandru's situation, getting him to do household chores. Sapna falls in love with Chandru, but she realises Chandru and Aishwarya's love and keeps her feelings as a secret.
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, escape with his expertise in Varma kalai. Later, Senapathy and Amirthavalli reaches a hospital. At that time, Amirthavalli meets Chandru at an elevator. It is revealed that Chandru is Senapathy's son. They had fallen out due to Senapathy's excessive insistence on honesty and righteousness, which Chandru considers irrelevant in present day. Senapathy kidnaps and murders a corrupt doctor on live television as the doctor refused to treat Senapathy's daughter Kasturi, who was suffering from third-degree burns unless given a bribe, but Senapathy refused, leading to her death. The public support surges for Senapathy as he exposes many corrupt individuals. Meanwhile, Chandru, who became a brake inspector, takes a bribe and gives a safety certificate to a school bus with faulty brakes, which crashes and kills 40 school children.
Chandru tries to inject alcohol into the driver's corpse to frame him for drunk driving. Senapathy catches him and tries to kill him for corruption, but is caught by Krishnaswamy, yet escapes from custody. 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, where Senapathy mournfully kills Chandru and apparently dies in an explosion involving an aeroplane and a jeep. While investigating recorded footage, Krishnaswamy discovers that Senapathy escaped moments before the jeep exploded. Senapathy calls Krishnaswamy from Hong Kong to confirm his survival and asks to reveal this to the public. He adds that he will return, should the need for his presence arise.
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. Since the subject revolved around a father and son, he considered Rajasekhar for the father role, with either Nagarjuna or Venkatesh as the son, but the plans did not materialise. The film eventually materialised under the title Indian, produced by A. M. Rathnam, with Kamal Haasan playing both roles. Haasan was initially reluctant to do the film because of its similarities to his 1977 film Naam Pirandha Mann, but relented after Rathnam paid him the entire salary before he began acting. On 17 February 1995, the official muhurat pooja for this film took place, with Rajinikanth attending the event as its chief guest.
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. Subsequently, Manisha Koirala was selected after Shankar was impressed with her performance in Bombay (1995). 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 subsequently replaced her, only for Shankar to throw her out for missing a day's schedule to attend her sister's wedding. The role was finally handed to Sukanya, who had previously appeared alongside Kamal Haasan in Mahanadhi (1994). Bollywood actress Urmila Matondkar was signed to play another leading role after the producers were impressed with her performance and the success of her 1995 Hindi film, Rangeela. Malayalam character actor Nedumudi Venu signed on to play the role of CBI officer Krishnaswamy at Haasan's recommendation, while Nassar dubbed his voice. 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. The senior Kamal Haasan's look for the character Senapathy was based on Haasan's father. Shankar initially wanted P. C. Sreeram to handle cinematography; however due to his other commitments, Jeeva was chosen as cinematographer. One of the assistant directors chanced upon a book by varma kalai practitioner R. Rajendran about the martial art, and Rajendran was hired to teach Haasan the same.
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. 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. 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 Haasan and Koirala was shot near the Sydney Opera House in Sydney and Canberra for fifteen days. 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. A fight scene was shot at Irungkaattukottai Motor Racing Track. The flashback sequences, set during pre-Independent India, were in black-and-white. 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.
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). Rediff.com however estimated budget to be ₹15 crore. The music video for "Akadanu Naanga" directed by Padam Kumar and choreographed by Vaibhavi Merchant, cost ₹1.5 crore.
The soundtrack album includes five tracks composed by A. R. Rahman, 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. 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. The Hindi soundtrack, called Hindustani, sold a further 1.8 million units, bringing total sales to at least 2.4 million units.
Indian was released worldwide on 9 May 1996. 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. 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.
Indian became a major box office success by grossing ₹64.25 crore (US$7.5 million) worldwide. Both the Telugu and Hindi dubbed versions also emerged successful.
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". Tharamani of Kalki praised the film for depicting romance in a dignified manner, narrating flashbacks in black-and-white and keeping the beauty shining and budding everywhere without being blinded but criticising the film for giving a wrong message of justifying the murders. 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".
Indian was selected by India as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 1996, but was not nominated.
Indian was re-released on 7 June 2024, in over 600 screens worldwide.
A sequel Indian 2 again directed by Shankar and starring Haasan was released on 12 July 2024. A third film is also in production and was shot alongside Indian 2; the film, titled Indian 3, is being aimed for release in 2025, six months after its predecessor. In 2008, Shankar planned on a crossover film featuring characters from Indian, Mudhalvan (1999) and Sivaji: The Boss (2007), but dropped the idea due to lack of encouragement from his assistant directors.
Senthil reprised the role of Panneerselvam in the film Satyam.