When interviewed about the difficulties of casting , Mani Ratnam revealed he " struggled " citing that casting " is most important as far as performance is concerned " and that " fifty per cent of the job is done if you cast correctly " . Mohanlal was approached to play Anandan , a character inspired by the former actor-politician M. G. Ramachandran and about his performance in the film , Mani Ratnam claimed that Mohanlal had " the ability to make everything absolutely realistic with the least amount of effort " . He described that debutant Aishwarya Rai , the former Miss World beauty pageant winner , who appeared in two different characters - one inspired by actress-politician Jayalalitha , as a " tremendous dancer " and " having a lot of potential " . The director revealed that the only difficulty Mohanlal and Aishwarya had was the language , both being non-Tamil speakers adding that the pair had to work hard over the dubbing trying to get as close to the Tamil tongue . The actor to play the role of Tamizhselvan , inspired by politician M. Karunanidhi , took substantially longer to finalise with the initial choice , Nana Patekar , withdrawing after several discussions about his remuneration . Mohanlal 's Malayalam counterpart Mammootty was offered the role but declined the offer , as did leading Tamil actors Kamal Hassan and Sathyaraj . Negotiations with R. Sarathkumar and Mithun Chakraborty were also unsuccessful as the pair demanded a higher remuneration , while Arvind Swamy was briefly signed on to play the role and had recorded two poems for the soundtrack , before opting out due to other commitments . Mani Ratnam also called R. Madhavan , then a small-time model for the screen test , but left him out of the project citing that he thought his eyes looked too young for a senior role . Subsequently , Prakash Raj , who had played a small role in Mani Ratnam 's 1994 film '' Bombay '' was signed up to essay the character . Prakash Raj initially told Mani Ratnam that he was unprepared to essay such a delicate role in such short notice , with Prakash Raj later revealing that Mani Ratnam nurtured the character and brought self-confidence into the actor . Renowned for being a perfectionist film-maker , Mani Ratnam made Prakash Raj take 25 takes for his first shot , lasting over six hours . Actress Tabu was also signed to play an important role in the film and shot for '' Iruvar '' alongside her Tamil debut film , '' Kadhal Desam ''
Miss World beauty pageant winner
Miss World 1994
Iruvar