Latest news with #Sivarasan
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Malayalam actor Shafeeq Mustafa on becoming Sivarasan in ‘The Hunt - The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case'
Actor Shafeeq Mustafa is a revelation in the Nagesh Kukunoor web series The Hunt —The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case. As the mercurial Sivarasan, the mastermind behind the 1991 assassination of the former prime minister, Shafeeq impresses in his breakout role. The Kochi-based actor is visibly happy over the outcome and the feedback coming his way from industry peers. For the 35 year-old self-taught actor who hails from Shoranur, the role was way beyond his wildest dreams. It came via a friend who told him about a production house that needed a South Indian actor. A round of auditions later, which included a dummy scene-and-look test, he was in. He is still excited about having got the opportunity to work with a director like Nagesh Kukunoor. 'It is an honour for me to work with someone like Nagesh sir. It is not like I am an established actor, I am trying to build a career for myself in films, and to get to work with him…I have given it my best shot!' His experience by way of a feature film is the 2020 film Ayyappanum Koshyum, in which he had a few scenes. Sivarasan's character as shown in the web series is complex, intelligent and cunning. He has an air of quiet resolve mingled with arrogance all of which Shafeeq has been able to translate onscreen without going over the top. Since Shafeeq was barely a year old when the events depicted in the series took place, he had a clean slate on which to draw the character. 'While part of my research came from documentaries, interviews about him, news reports, and photographs, the rest of it came from talking to people who lived through those times, especially journalists. This way I could try to get into the mind of the character,' Shafeeq says. Nagesh's inputs were of great help, he adds, in shaping the character per his vision. 'I had not read 90 Days (Anirudhya Mitra's book, the series is based on) I did not know the length of my character… I did not know too much about The Hunt. I gave it a shot because it felt unlike anything I'd encountered in my career so far, even though I am just starting out.') Of the challenges of essaying Sivarasan, the Sri Lankan dialect of Tamil aside, he says it was physically demanding. 'The prosthetic eye was a literal pain in the eye. It was so painful that often my eye would start watering. It was, literally, placing a foreign object in the eye and sometimes it would pop out. That was the actual difficult part. Nagesh sir would apologise about the discomfort…Imagine someone of his stature doing that!' Though Shafeeq has not learnt acting, he was involved in theatre while in school. He came to Kochi, pursued his cinema dreams dabbling in different departments including editing and as an assistant director. 'These were all my friends, so I could be around films, a part of movies!' Although he does not have too many feature films under his belt, he has been part of a few, including the noteworthyThiruttu Mundam. The film, directed by Renjith Vijayan, was an official selection at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK 2023). He does not know what comes next, but for now he is savouring the moment and the feedback from people such as Ahammed Khabeer, director of Kerala Crime Files, who told him that his performance was 'honest and essayed with absolute integrity.' The Hunt - The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case is streaming on SonyLiv
India Today
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- India Today
The Hunt actor Shafeeq Mustafa on playing Sivarasan, understanding LTTE politics
For Malayalam actor Shafeeq Mustafa, landing the role of Sivarasan in SonyLIV's 'The Hunt - The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination' was more than just a career breakthrough - it was validation of a long-cherished dream that began in school dramas and survived a three-year stint in the series, based on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has brought Shafeeq widespread recognition for his portrayal of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) operative. "The response to 'The Hunt' was phenomenal, and many complimented my performance as Sivarasan in the show. Some of them even said, 'you're going to stay here'. I feel so happy and relieved," he shared in his exclusive interview with India Today director Nagesh Kukunoor offered him the role, Shafeeq knew the opportunity was significant. "I knew that there will be a lot of scope for me as an actor and that I should perform well. I should be genuine to the role offered to me. I was lucky to work with Nagesh [Kukunoor] sir. That was my initial thought," he remarked. The physical transformation for the role was intense - Shafeeq had to gain 5-6 kilograms in just 20 days. "I had only 20 days from the day I got selected for the role and the first day of shooting. Nagesh sir told me that I needed to put on weight for the role. I could manage only 5-6 kgs," he costume requirements proved equally challenging: "I had to wear lenses and prosthetics for the role of Sivarasan. If you wear that for a long time, your eyes get irritated and start getting watery. That was the most difficult part of wearing the one-eyed get up." To prepare for the complex role, Shafeeq immersed himself in research. "Before 'The Hunt', I had watched 'Deepan' at IFFK (International Film Festival of Kerala). I also watched Madhavan's 'Kannathil Muthamittal'. I hadn't watched any other films on Rajiv Gandhi's case. But, I saw the videos, documentaries and news clips from that time. I also watched the interviews of LTTE. I had deep conversations with my friends in the media."The collaboration with veteran director Nagesh Kukunoor was a learning experience. "Nagesh sir used to teach me how to emote for every scene. If I had performed a different way, he would explain to me what he wanted. I had most scenes with South actors and the experience was enjoyable. Everyone helped me,' he on his experience, Shafeeq noted that while the suicide scene was his favourite during filming, "When I watched the show on the screen, it was the gun shooting scene that made go wow." The series has not only established him as a serious actor but also fulfilled a long-time dream. "It was my long-time dream to become an actor. I want to do it as long as possible."Shafeeq maintained a clear distinction between his craft and politics. When asked if he had developed any opinion on Sivarasan and the functioning of the LTTE, he said, "My sole aim was to do the character [of Sivarasan] properly. I am an actor first, so I did not form any opinion on politics involved. I wanted to perform the character to the best of my abilities."advertisementShafeeq's path to acting wasn't straightforward. Recalling the time he decided to pursue acting as a career, he stated, "When I was in school, I was a part of many dramas. I then worked in the Gulf for three years. A few of my friends were into movies. One of my friends, who was trying to become a director, advised me to stay there as I had the skill. In 2015, I came back to Kerala and, since then, I have been trying my hand at Malayalam movies."Before 'The Hunt', his filmography included small roles in the Malayalam film Ayyappanum Koshiyum, short films, and music videos. He explained, "This was my first big opportunity. Before 'The Hunt', I played small roles in the Malayalam film Ayyappanum Koshiyum, short films and music videos. When I was trying hard to get into movies, I received this opportunity. So, I had no thoughts. Nagesh sir and his team are the reason for me to pick this. I was not hesitant."advertisementWith 'The Hunt' behind him, Shafeeq is being selective about future projects. Explaining his decision, he said, "I had acted in an independent film, but I am not sure if it will have a theatrical release. I am in talks for more projects, but hasn't finalised anything as of now. But, I have made a decision that I should start choosing my characters properly. My friends have been advising me to choose my roles carefully from now on."His ambitions extend beyond regional cinema: "I want to act in Malayalam, Tamil and all languages. I am open to doing all roles, be it a character role or a lead."'The Hunt' is streaming on SonyLIV.- Ends
The Hindu
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
‘No blazing climax, no glory at the end': Director Nagesh Kukunoor decodes ‘The Hunt'
Those who grew up on the slice-of-life stories dished out by Nagesh Kukunoor at the turn of the millennium would vouch for the respect he exudes towards his characters, and the freedom he gives them to take on adversity. Iqbal, Dor, Lakshmi, Dhanak… there are no absolutes in his universe as Kukunoor digs an estuary between heroes and villains, between Nature and nurture. After a creative quiescence, Kukunoor is back with The Hunt, a gripping series documenting the investigations that followed the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE in May, 1991. 'If I am going to put the camera on anyone, I am going to approach it with complete humanity first and then go through the layers. It is satisfying, and fun, if someone gets the second or third layer, but never at the cost of the first,' says Kukunoor. Kukunoor was a newly minted chemical engineer in Dallas when the suicide bombing in Sriperumbudur sent shock waves around the world. 'I was shocked and felt sad for the Gandhi family, but those were the days when the details came out only in the weekend edition of The New York Times.' A faithful adaptation of journalist Anirudhya Mitra's book Ninety Days, Kukunoor rates the series as his 'hardest assignment' in terms of writing. He did not want to 'touch anything political,' but when Sameer Nair of Applause Entertainment asked him to read the book, he felt he 'could navigate the space' without getting caught in any toxic minefield. 'It is my first adaptation of a book, and for the first time, I am dealing with true crime. Every word had to be parsed because several 'officers involved in the investigation are still around.' Led by senior IPS officer D Karthikeyan (Amit Sial), the series tracks how the Special Investigation Team that included a galaxy of top cops such as Amit Varma (Sahil Vaid), Amod Kanth (Danish Iqbal), K Ragothaman (Bagavathi Perumal), Radhagovind Raju (Girish Sharma) and Captain Ravindran (Vidyuth Garg) took 90 days to pin down the one-eyed conspirator, Sivarasan. 'There are several points of view. We decided to stick to Mitra's book and not engage with anyone,' adds Kukunoor. From the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao telling officials that they possibly made a mistake by making Sivarasan, and not the LTTE chief Prabhakaran, as the face of the hunt to the inordinate delay of 36 hours in storming Sivarasan's final hideout on the outskirts of Bengaluru, there are a lot of dots that the series lays out for the audience to connect. 'I don't look into the motives. Like journalists do in a reportage, I have put out the information as honestly as possible. Those who understand the period would get more out of it, while for the lay audience it is a thriller with a slice of our history.' The form does not limit itself to a regular thriller either. 'Yes, there is no blazing climax, and there is no glory at the end. Everything stalls in the seventh episode, but that's how it was.' In the beginning, Kukunoor says, it was supposed to be a six-episode series, 'but when I got into the rhythm of the investigation, I decided to devote one episode to just explore the long wait before the denouement.' It makes for a gripping narrative probably because destiny plays a significant role in the whole episode. At one point, desperate to find the needle in the haystack, Amod talks about the need for Lady Luck. 'Absolutely, no screenwriter could have imagined it,' gushes Kukunoor. 'How would you explain a truck full of lumber breaks the security cordon and stops in front of the hideout?' Had the investigators not found alleged LTTE sympathiser Haribabu's camera that was used to record the blast, it could have been a perfect crime. 'Yes, more importantly, it survived the blast. The engineer in me feels he must have raised his hands to record the incident as the impact blew away everything below that level.' The series doesn't paint people in black and white and opens a window to the extremists' mindscape as well. Kukunoor delicately handles the cliche: 'one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.' A dreaded terrorist can also enjoy a Rajinikanth caper in between plotting an assassination and holding his cigarette like the superstar. 'It is the way I view the world as a filmmaker. I think that, if given any material that pointed fingers, I would not have attempted it. I would have asked, 'Ismei mujhe karna kya hai (what do I have to do here)'. For me, the excitement and thrill come when everyone comes out as grey. This is how I see the world.' During the investigation, the series also gently addresses the North-South stereotypes that most of us inadvertently carry. A Hyderabadi who spent his formative years in Tamil Nadu, Kukunoor says it stems from his understanding of the issue. 'In the boarding school, we would all sing Tamil songs, but because my classmates knew that I spoke Dakhni Hindi, they would grudgingly ask me to sing something in Hindi, like an item. For them, I was from the North, a bit north. My father, who worked with the UNICEF in Delhi, and someone who could easily express himself in Urdu because of his education during the Nizam period, was casually labelled a Madrasi because in North India, Hyderabad is considered part of the deep South. It irritated him no end, and he kept saying: 'Chaar badde state hai, ek nahin. (There are four big states in the South, not just one)'. With Raghothaman as his foil, Kukunoor explores the emotions of an officer investigating individuals from one's community. 'It is one of those things that I always wanted to understand. I wish I could ask this of Indian soldiers working for the colonial masters,' he muses. As a showrunner, Kukunoor is the happiest with the look of the series. He stripped the production design of all decorativeness to the bare minimum, taking us back in time. Shot extensively in Hyderabad and Mumbai, Kukunoor says, after a long time, he scouted locations in old Hyderabad's Kothiyan and Sultan Bazar to create the movement of LTTE cadres. 'Photographs of the period guided me. These officers were on the biggest case, but in photographs, they appear to be regular people. There is only one photograph where Karthikeyan is wearing shades and is walking in some style, but in others he is in safari suits with hands folded behind his back.' Chuffed by the response Sial has received for his sterling performance, Kukunoor says he prefers looks and acting skills over ethnicity. The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case is streaming on SonyLIV
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First Post
04-07-2025
- Politics
- First Post
Who was ‘one-eyed' Sivarasan, the mastermind of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination plan?
A new series called 'The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination' relives the 90-day manhunt for Sivarasan, the LTTE operative who masterminded the deadly killing of Rajiv Gandhi. But who was he, and how did he hatch the plan to kill the former PM? read more Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi greeted as he arrives to make an address during an election campaign moments before he was killed by a suicide bomber in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu. File image/AFP On May 21, 1991, a bespectacled girl in an orange and green churidar bent down respectfully to touch Rajiv Gandhi's feet after he addressed an election rally in Sriperumbudur in India's Tamil Nadu. It was then that she set off a concealed explosive device that was strapped to her body. What followed was chaos and death; Gandhi, then aged 46, was killed along with 18 others, including the girl — later identified as Dhanu. This moment remains a black day in the history of Independent India. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD It also set off a massive nationwide investigation for the conspirators — which has now been converted into a seven-episode serial on SonyLiv, titled The Hunt – The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case, directed by Nagesh Kukunoor. The gripping show, ( read our review) gives us a ringside view of the CBI investigation and a closer look at those involved in the assassination, including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam operatives led by Sivarasan. But who exactly was Sivarasan? How did he plan the death of Rajiv Gandhi? And what happened to him after it? We have the answers. Meet one-eyed Sivarasan The man believed to have devised the Rajiv Gandhi assassination plan was Chandrasekharampillai Packiachandran, also known as Sivarasan. Born in 1858, in Udupiddy, a town about 32 km from Sri Lanka's Jaffna City, he had a normal childhood. Sivarasan's father inculcated in him strong nationalist feelings at a young age. When his father died in late 1977, Sivarasan, being the eldest child, had to bear the family burden and drop out of school and begin supporting the family — he had three brothers and two sisters. It was around this time, that Sivarasan began showing signs of disenchantment with the Sri Lankan government. In fact, during this period, he was arrested on multiple occasions for displaying strong pro-Tamil Eelam views. Around 1983, he joined the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (Telo), a militant group. But in the subsequent years, he joined the LTTE. During his time in the LTTE, he was injured in a clash with the Sri Lankan armed forces near the Jaffna Fort and he lost his left eye. Soon after, his fellow LTTE colleagues started calling him 'Ottaraikkannan' or 'one-eyed person'. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Following the release of the 1961 Marlon Brando Hollywood film, Sivarasan became known as 'one-eyed Jack'. Sivarasan was specifically selected and assigned the task of killing Rajiv Gandhi by LTTE's Prabhakaran. File image/X Planning the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi As years rolled by, Sivarasan was promoted as captain in the LTTE and entrusted with specific assignments to be undertaken clandestinely in India. In 1990, he was tasked with the assassination of Kanthasamy Padmanabha alias Naabhaa aka Ranjan, who was the Secretary–General of the pro-India Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front. The success of this mission led LTTE chief Prabhakaran to assign him with his next target — Rajiv Gandhi. Unlike the Padmanabha assassination where firearms and grenades were used, another new method was to be used to kill Rajiv Gandhi. The entire responsibility of the mission was handed over to Sivarasan and he hatched the plan which saw him recruiting several other LTTE operatives such as Murugan, Ravichandran, Santhan and even Nalini. On the day of the assassination, Sivarasan, dressed as a journalist, reached the location of Rajiv Gandhi's rally and hid himself in the crowds. As Rajiv Gandhi walked to the crowds, it was Sivarasan who guided him towards Dhanu, who, in turn, garlanded Gandhi and then bent as if to touch his feet. She flicked a switch, resulting in half a kilo of plastic explosives in her suicide vest exploding, killing Rajiv Gandhi and others. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Sonia Gandhi, daughter Priyanka, and son Rahul turn to chanting mourners during the funeral of Rajiv Gandhi at Shakti Sthal on the banks of the River Yamuna in New Delhi. File image/AFP The hunt for Sivarasan and his death In the ruckus caused following the explosion, Sivarasan and his other conspirators fled the scene. However, what they didn't realise was that another photographer present at the rally had inadvertently taken photos of them. This led to a manhunt for Sivarasan, which ended up in the Bangalore suburb of Konanakunte in the state of Karnataka. In his book Ninety Days: The True Story of the Hunt for Rajiv Gandhi's Assassins, journalist-author Anirudhya Mitra writes, 'When he [Sivarasan] found that the police had surrounded his hideout in Konanakunte, he didn't immediately die by suicide. He knew the agencies would like to catch him alive, and yet he waited thirty-six hours for them to finally break into his hideout. It's only then that he shot himself through his temple. He was cunning, ruthless, brutal and devoted to his Tamil cause.' And when the authorities finally broke into Sivarasan's hideout, they found six of his comrades dead inside. They had all bitten into the capsule of cyanide that they wore around their neck. What is most ironic is that Sivarasan died on August 20 — the same day that Rajiv Gandhi was born. Also, the Indian Express reports that the residence in Konanakunte where Sivarasan and the other LTTE members stayed was converted into a police station and later the landlord rented it out to a school. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With inputs from agencies
Scroll.in
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
‘The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case' review: A balancing act between fact and drama
The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case takes a while to find its tone. The show's prosaic title is the first indication of a balancing act between well-publicised facts and dramatisation, subtext and context, the thin line between justice and retribution. The Sony LIV series follows the Central government's investigation into Rajiv Gandhi's horrific death on May 21, 1991, in a suicide bombing carried out by a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam member. Gandhi was campaigning in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu for the Lok Sabha election. His Congress party had been voted out of power, and he was aiming to return as the head of state. Gandhi's gruesome demise was blamed on a misguided policy decision during his prime ministership: sending the Indian Peacekeeping Force military unit to aid Sri Lanka in its civil war with the LTTE. The Tamil Tigers, led by Velupillai Prabhakaran, sought to avenge alleged abuses by the IPKF, identifying Gandhi as a high-value target of their rage. The Hunt, adapted from Anirudhya Mitra's non-fiction book Ninety Days: The True Story of the Hunt for Rajiv Gandhi's Assassins, begins on Gandhi's last day. Gandhi (Rajiv Kumar) arrives in Sriperumbudur late into the night. A group of Tamil Tigers, led by the one-eyed Sivarasan (Shafeeq Mustafa), is patiently waiting for him. In the first of several miracles for the inquiry led by Kaarthikeyan (Amit Sial), a still camera containing photographs of the perpetrators survives the blast even though the photographer Haribabu doesn't. Haribabu (Vishnu G Warrier) is one of many local LTTE sympathisers, instructed to capture the impact of the suicide attack for propaganda purposes. The contours of Sivarasan's plot soon comes into view. Kaarthikeyan and his core teammates – Amit (Sahil Vaid), Ragothaman (Bagavathi Perumal), Amod Kant (Danish Iqbal), Radhavinod (Girish Sharma) and Ravindran (Vidyut Garg) – assiduously track down and interrogate the plotters. Sivarasan and his hardened aides manage to evade capture. Mounting pressure leads to the deployment of custodial beatings and even the threat of rape. The early episodes of The Hunt have a rough time setting up the conspiracy without boring viewers. The dialogue switches between Tamil and Hindi, with Kaarthikeyan – a Tamilian in real life – bizarrely shown as a Hindi speaker. (Some aspects of Sivarasan's dastardly scheme and the manhunt have already inspired plot points in The Family Man 's second season, in which an ex-LTTE operative tries to carry out one last mission.) After its initial clumsiness, The Hunt gets down to business. The screenplay by Nagesh Kukunoor, Rohit Banawlikar and Sriram Rajan gradually attains the rigour of an engaging police procedural. Pedestrian lines such as 'The Gandhi family is very unlucky' and 'Rajiv Gandhi must go!' (attributed to Prabhakaran, played by Jyothish MG) make way for the dogged pursuit of a formidable adversary. There are just about enough details of the larger political backdrop to satisfy the mildly curious viewer. The events explored over seven episodes remain sensitive, with unverified theories about the assassination still floating around. The show's creators sidestep the minefields presented by pro-LTTE sentiment within Tamil Nadu, or the role, if any, played by politicians in delaying the capture of the fugitives. This welcome lack of sensationalism does dilute the absurdity of the circumstances surrounding Sivarasan's end game. The absence of finger-pointing does not preclude attempts to understand the ideology of the Tigers. A character observes that 'One man's hero is another man's terrorist' – a reworking of an oft-quoted line from Gerald Seymour's novel Harry's Game. Although Sivarasan is portrayed as a comic book villain, his commitment to his cause, which is matched by the other Tigers, is unmistakeable. Parallels are drawn between the camaraderie within Kaarthikeyan's group and the solidarity between Sivarasan and his comrades. Amit Sial embodies the show's carefully calibrated approach. Sial's Kaarthikeyan is methodical, cool-headed, resigned even, whether firefighting with his bosses or facing the prospect that Sivarasan may never be caught. There are solid turns from Bagavathi Perumal, Sahil Vaid and Vidyut Garg as government officials bound by rules but not always contained by them. The overall feeling is of a job well done, despite the hiccups and the meddling. The motives behind the political double-dealing and Indian links to the storied separatist movement are left to other, more ambitious creators. Play
