Indian (1996 film)

Indian is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language vigilante action film directed and co-written by S. Shankar. The film stars Kamal Haasan in a dual role, Manisha Koirala, Urmila Matondkar and Sukanya, with Nedumudi Venu, Manorama, Goundamani, Senthil, Kasthuri, Nizhalgal Ravi and Ajay Rathnam in supporting roles. It is the first installment in the Indian film series. In the film, a retired freedom fighter rebels against corruption in India, which puts him in conflict with his son who lives by corruption.

The film was produced by A. M. Rathnam, while the dialogues were written by Sujatha. The soundtrack and musical score was composed by A. R. Rahman, with cinematography handled by Jeeva and editing by B. Lenin-V. T. Vijayan.

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 (Haasan), two South Filmfare Awards and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. A sequel Indian 2 was released in July 2024 and a third film is in production, for a January 2025 release.

Plot
A series of killings take place in Avadi in the same pattern; stabbing by a knife and the victim becoming paralysed before dying. The Chennai Police Department, led by CBI officer Krishnaswamy, 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 revealed to be Senapathy, a retired Indian freedom fighter and member of the INA led by Subhas Chandra Bose, for threatening a poor old woman to bribe him to hand over compensation amount of inr 10000 given by the government as her husband was killed in a riot.

Chandrabose "Chandru" is a small-time broker stationed outside the RTO at Chennai. Chandru 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 love interest Aishwarya, an 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 had fallen out due to Senapathy's excessive insistence on honesty and righteousness, which Chandru considers irrelevant in present day.

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 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. 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 school bus with faulty brakes, which eventually kills 40 school children and the driver in an accident.

Chandru tries to frame the deceased driver for drunk driving and manages to bribe a cop and a doctor on the same. Senapathy catches him in the act and tries to kill him for corruption, but is caught by Krishnaswamy and sentenced to prison, but later escapes. 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 mournfully kills his son 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 and says that he will be back whenever the need for his presence should arise.

Development
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.

Casting and filming
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. 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. 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.

Music
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 1.8million units, bringing total sales to at least 2.4million units.

Release
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.

Box office
The film became a major box office success by breaking the record for a Tamil film and earning over ₹65 crore worldwide. 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 emerged blockbusters at the box office.

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". 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. 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".

Accolades
Indian was selected by India as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 1996, but was not nominated.

Re-release
Indian was re-released on 7 June 2024, in over 600 screens worldwide.

Sequels
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, Nayak: The Real Hero (2001) and Sivaji: The Boss (2007), but dropped the idea due to lack of encouragement from his assistant directors.