00:00Nayakin. Directed by Mani Ratnam, the 1987 Tamil crime classic Nayakin stars Kamal Hazen as Vailu
00:07Naykar, a slum dweller who rises to become a powerful Bombay underworld Don. The film was
00:12India's official submission to the 1988 Oscars and was famously featured on Time Magazine's
00:17all-time 100 best movies list. The character of Vailu Naykar is loosely based on the real-life
00:23Bombay underworld Don Varadarajan Mudliar, a prominent Tamil figure who operated in the
00:28Dharavi slums. The film is heavily influenced by the Hollywood classic The Godfather, mirroring
00:34its tragic family dynamics, moral ambiguity, and rise-to-power narrative. To realistically play
00:40a 60-year-old patriarch at the age of 32, Kamal Hazen used custom dentures to add weight to his
00:45jawline and ensure a convincing, weary evolution of his character's age. Hazen also convinced his
00:51co-stars, like Dele Ganesh and Janakaraj, to cut their hair and grow gray with him.
00:55Nayakan was officially remade in Hindi in 1988 as Diavan, starring Vinod Khanna and Madhuri Dixit.
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