Did You Know: Mani Ratnam's inspiration for Nayagan

[M.J.Sadiq]

One of Mumbai's dreaded underworld kingpins Varadarajan Mudaliar served as Mani Ratnam's inspiration for his Godfather-like film, Nayagan. The film, which released in 1987, was a critical and commercial success. The film, starring Kamal Haasan in the lead, was nominated by India as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. The Time Magazine included the movie in its list of All-Time 100 Best Films.