Mudhalvan () is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language political action film produced by R. Madhesh and S. Shankar, written and directed by Shankar. The film stars Arjun, Manisha Koirala and Raghuvaran while Vadivelu and Manivannan appear in supporting roles. The film featured an award-winning soundtrack composed by A. R. Rahman, cinematography by K. V. Anand and dialogues by Sujatha. The film revolves around an ambitious TV journalist, Pughazhendi, who gets his first interview with the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Pughazh asks harder questions, and the Chief Minister starts trembling and asks him to put his money where his mike is and become his replacement CM for a day. After initially rejecting the offer, Pugazh agrees and does such a great job on his first day, that the actual cabinet collapses and fresh elections are held, where state voters eventually elect him to be their new official Chief Minister. The subsequent unpopularity and jealousy that the old Chief Minister goes through results in him taking revenge on Pugazh, and how he is stopped forms the crux of the story. The film was released on 7 November 1999, as a Deepavali release. The film enjoyed positive critical acclaim and emerged as one of the top grossing Tamil films of 1999. The film ran for over 100 days in theaters and won awards on a regional scale. The film was later remade in Hindi as Nayak (2001). Also the film was unofficially remade in Bangladeshi Bengali as Minister (2002) and loosely remade in Indian Bengali as MLA Fatakeshto (2006). Plot N. Pugazhendi alias Pugazh is a news reporter working for QTV in Chennai. One day, a riot occurs between the students and the bus drivers in the city following a communal clash which disrupts normal life. The Chief Minister of the state, Aranganathar, informs the police over wireless not to arrest the protesters as they belong to his community and political party. The conversation is recorded by Pugazh in his video camera. Pugazh meets Thenmozhi and falls for her honesty and bravery. However, her father does not accept the marriage proposal as he wants to get Thenmozhi married only to a government employee. One day, QTV arranges for a live interview with Aranganathar and the anchor in charge left his job and joined at another television channel UTV, a rival for QTV. Pugazh is thrilled and excited as he gets the opportunity to