In his most ambitious film to date, Mollywood actor Mohanlal will be starring as Indian freedom fighter Nair San in an Indo-Japanese production financed in the Middle East with a budget rumoured to be as high as $50 million. Jackie Chan will also make a cameo appearance in the movie, reputedly being paid six times more than Mohanlal for his services! Japanese actress Shunsuke Matsuoka will also appear. The movie will be shot in several languages for worldwide distribution including Hindi, Japanese and English.
The film charts the life of Ayyappan Pillai Madhavan Nair, known as Nair San in Japan. Nair San was a rebel from an early age. In his home state of Kerala, he campaigned against the British imposed education tax as a student and was sent to Japan by his brother to keep him out of harm’s way. Once settled in Japan, he mixed with other anti-imperialist rebels such as Chandra Bose and Pratap Singh and distinguished himself within the orbit of the Indian National Army and the Indian Independence League. Speaking Chinese and Japanese fluently, he travelled to Mongolia, working hard to disrupt the economic practices that made imperialism worthwhile in the region. Later, after the war and Indian independence, he settled permanently in Japan.
Shunsuke Matsuoka is best known internationally for the movie Freezer in which the heroine cuts up her feckless boyfriend and keeps him in the freezer. She was also in the excellent pastiche of the Mike Hammer TV series, Mike Hama – Private Detective Mr Nippon – 21st Century Man.
