Kabali is an upcoming 2016 Indian Tamil crime drama film written and directed by Pa. Ranjith. The film stars Rajinikanth, Radhika Apte, Kishore, Kalaiyarasan, Dhansika, and Dinesh Ravi. Principal photography for the film began on 21 August 2015 in Chennai, while filming mostly occurred in Malaysia,[1] as well as Bangkok and Hong Kong.
In June 2015, director Pa. Ranjith announced his third directorial venture, which would follow his previous two films Attakathi (2012) and Madras (2014), with Rajinikanth via Twitter. Working with Ranjith would make Kabali Rajinikanth's first film with a novel director for the first time since his collaboration with S. Shankar in Sivaji (2007).[6] In an interview with IndiaGlitz, producer S. Thanu revealed that Rajinikanth had personally asked him to produce the Ranjith-directed film. The producer's commercially successful Bairavi (1978) was Rajinikanth's first lead role film and the two had not collaborated since.[7] It was speculated that Rajinikanth's role would be based on a real-life mob boss from Chennai.[8] Santhosh Narayanan was confirmed as the film's music composer, continuing his partnership with Ranjith after the latter's previous two films. Ranjith also retained G. Murali, the cinematographer of Madras.

On 17 August 2015, Ranjith announced the title of the film to be Kabali and that Rajinikanth would play the role of Kabaliswaran.[9] The makers of the film had earlier considered using the title Kaali, which was the title of Rajinikanth's 1980 film. As that film did not do well in the Tamil Nadu box office at the time, the makers passed on using it for the new film. Another title, Kannabhiran, was also considered but it was later found that the title's rights were already held by director Ameer Sultan for a future film.[10]

Casting[edit]
Dinesh Ravi, who played the lead in Ranjith's Attakathi (2012), and Kalaiyarasan, who played pivotal roles in both of the director's previous films, were also confirmed to be part of the film. The main villain role was offered to Prakash Raj initially,[11] but later it was said that the role was declined due to scheduling issues and John Vijay stepped in.[12] It was later confirmed that the role of the lead character's wife would be given to Radhika Apte, who was introduced to Tamil films through Dhoni (2012).[13] Dhansika was signed to play a supporting character in the film.[14]

Filming[edit]
On 18 August 2015, director Pa Ranjith announced on his Twitter page that principal photography would begin the following week,[15] which was confirmed on 22 August when Behindwoods covered a photo shoot which took place on 21 August at AVM Studios in Chennai. First schedule of the filming started on Vinayagar Chaturthi on 17 September 2015 at the Russian Centre of Science and Cultural in Chennai.[