20 Years of Narasimha: Four interesting facts about the film

It’s been 20 years since Captain Vijayakanth’s Narasimha hit screens. The action entertainer, directed by the late Thirupathisamy, had an ensemble cast, which included Vijayakanth, Isha Koppikar, Raghuvaran, Nassar, Anandaraj, Ranjith, Rahul Dev and Vadivelu. Music for the film was by Mani Sharma. The film was one of the most popular ones of Vijayakanth.

The film was directed by Thirupathisamy, who had earlier assisted director Suresh Krissna. He made his directorial debut with the Telugu hit Ganesh and later made another successful film titled Azad. He made his Tamil debut with Narasimha. However, the director met with a car crash and passed away even before the film hit screens. The producers dedicated the film to the director.

Rambha, one of the most sought-after actresses of the times was approached to play the leading lady in the film, but her unavailability meant that the role went to Isha Koppikar. Isha had earlier worked in films like Kaadhal Kavithai, En Swasa Kaatre, Nenjinile and Jodi. But after Narasimha, she switched base to Bollywood and is now making a comeback in Tamil with Sivakarthikeyan’s Ayalaan.

The soundtrack of the film was composed by Mani Sharma and the song Lala Nandalala which featured Ramya Krishnan in a special appearance became quite popular. The song Egipthu Raani sung by Shankar Mahadevan and Harini, marked the 100th song for lyricist Pa Vijay. The other songs in the album included Innoru Desiya Geetham, Kadhal Aaraaro and Mandela Mandela.

The action flick was remade in Telugu as Salute and in Hindi as Agni Jwala. In 2006, Vijayakanth and his brother-in-law, politician LK Sudhish and the film’s producers were engaged in a legal battle to compensate distributors due to the film’s losses. Though the film received mixed reviews at the Box Office, it became one of the most popular films of Captain Vijayakanth.