Happy birthday Kamal Haasan: Seven highly anticipated films of the star which never materialised

As Kamal Haasan turns 65, here are some of his most anticipated films which could not release in theatres.

In his illustrious career spanning over five decades, actor Kamal Haasan has starred in over 200 films across languages. From a child actor to emerging as one of the best actors of the country, Haasan has come a long way with many memorable films and roles to his credit. As the star turns 65 on Thursday, we take a look at seven highly anticipated projects of the Vishwaroopam actor – which he announced at different stages of his career - but never got realized for various reasons.

Kamal Haasan at his party office in Hyderabad on Thursday.(ANI)

KG

In 2004, during one of his visits to Bengaluru, Haasan met filmmaker Singeetham Srinivasa Rao and the duo decided to join hands for a Tamil-Kannada cop thriller titled KG. Even though the actor was really excited about the project, he couldn’t immediately work on it as he was occupied with Vasool Raja MBBS, the Tamil remake of Munnabhai MBBS. A few years later, Haasan had planned to revisit KG with actor Ramesh Aravind. The project never got made and the reasons still remain unknown.

Marmayogi

After the phenomenal success of Dasavatharam, it was announced that Marmayogi would be Kamal’s next big project. So the idea was born in 2001 but it was not until the release of Dasavatharam did Kamal announce Marmayogi. Tipped to be a Hindi-Tamil bilingual film set in the 7th century, the project was to take-off in 2008 after a year being spent on its pre-production. Actors Venkatesh, Trisha, Hema Malini and Mohanlal were signed for the film and a photo-shoot was held in early 2008. However, Pyramid Saimira, the company which had agreed to bankroll the project decided to back off after the debacle of their then release Kuselan, starring Rajinikanth.

19 Steps

In 2008, Haasan agreed to star in an Indo-Japanese production titled 19 Steps, which was to be directed by Bharat Bala. Written by Malayalam writer M.T Vasudevan Nair, the film was set to tell the tale of a Samurai warrior, trying to conquer the ancient Indian martial art of Kalaripayattu. Haasan was set to play the role of an Indian martial arts guru. As part of the initial casting, Asin and Tadanobu Asano were signed for the film. The project was to be produced by Walt Disney on a large scale and major portion of the shooting was to take place in Kerala. For reasons still unknown, 20 days before the start of the shoot, the project was shelved indefinitely.

The Tooth of Buddha

In 2009, reports emerged that filmmaker Mysskin and Kamal Haasan were planning to join hands for a martial-arts based film called The Tooth of Buddha. After projects such as Marmayogi and 19 Steps failing to take off, Haasan was quite invested in this film and he even approached many US-based studios for funding, but unfortunately things never worked in favour of the project, which was eventually dropped. In several of his interviews, Mysskin has shared his desire to make the film someday.

Sabash Naidu

Haasan’s trilingual comedy Sabash Naidu has been jinxed from the day it went on floors. The film’s crew so far has been reshuffled thrice, starting from the exit of director TK Rajeev Kumar, who was originally supposed to direct the project. Finally, when Kamal himself took over the reins of the project and successfully completed the US schedule in 2016, the veteran actor fell and fractured his leg, resulting in the shoot being stalled. It’s been over three years and there’s been no update on whether he will return to complete the shoot. Sabash Naidu was supposed to be a spin-off on the popular character from his film Dasavatharam. Actor Shruti Haasan and Brahmanandam were signed and even participated in the first schedule of the project.

Kamal Haasan’s Hollywood project

In 2012, well-known Hollywood producer Barrie Osborne expressed his interest in making an English film with Kamal Haasan, who would go on to direct it and play the lead role as well. In 2013, Kamal announced a project titled Moo, which was about three lives and was to be made in English as well with the title Triple Impact. The project failed to take off and was shelved indefinitely.

Amma Appa Vilayattu

In 2015, Haasan and Malayalam filmmaker TK Rajeev Kumar were supposed to team up for a bilingual project titled Amma Appa Vilayattu in Tamil and Amma Naana Aata in Telugu. Originally planned to be made with Sridevi, the project was announced with Amala Akkineni and Zarina Wahab in pivotal roles. The film was to be entirely shot in the United States. However, it never got materialized and both Haasan and Rajeev Kumar went on to commence work on Sabash Naidu a year later.

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